NFL player Brendon Ayanbadejo has said
that up to four football players are thinking about coming out gay on
the same day.
During an appearance on MSNBC,
Ayanbadejo, who was let go Thursday by the Baltimore Ravens, said his
gay marriage advocacy was unrelated to the move.
“Basically, that's the NFL,”
Ayanbadejo told host Thomas Roberts. “The NFL is a revolving door
and players come in and players go out of. I played for ten years in
the NFL, the average is three years, so I might have, you know,
played my period of time and now it might be on to the next thing.
It's just the natural course of the NFL, you're only going to be
there for so long. It happens to every player.”
In
comments to reporters on Thursday, Ayanbadejo remarked that an
NFL player could come out “sooner than you think.”
“We're in talks with a handful of
players who are considering it. There are up to four players being
talked to right now and they're trying to be organized so they can
come out on the same day together. It would make a major splash and
take pressure off one guy. It would be a monumental day if a handful
or a few guys come out.”
He expanded on the effort in his MSNBC
appearance.
“We're talking with the NFL and we're
talking with other organizations to make it a safe environment.
We're trying to let players know through the NFL this is something
that people need to accept and head in that direction we're a little
bit behind in,” Ayanbadejo said. (The video is embedded on this
page. Visit
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