Alan Gendreau could become the National
Football League's (NFL) first openly gay player.
Gendreau, a 23-year-old kicker who
scored 295 points during his college career playing for the Middle
Tennessee Blue Raiders, is the first openly gay player to enter the
NFL draft, the league's annual college recruitment event taking place
this week in New York.
Gendreau came out gay at the age of 15
and is a devout Christian.
“My personal belief is that God made
me this way,” Gendreau told ABC
News. “And I didn't choose it.”
“He defines himself as a good man, a
Christian, an athlete,” said
Howard Bragman, who is representing Gendreau. “He has a lot of
ways he defines himself. He's a well-rounded guy who happens to be
gay.”
“If someone were to come out, they'd
make millions. They [have] always said if someone came out, it would
be disruptive. A week before the Super Bowl, the story was that
homophobia was what was being disruptive,” Bragman added, a
reference to comments made by San Francisco 49ers player Chris
Culliver.
Culliver offered a quick apology and
vowed to mend his ways after he said that gay players “gotta get up
out of here if they do. Can't be with that sweet stuff” in a radio
interview.
(Related: 49ers
Chris Culliver to work with Trevor Project after anti-gay comments.)
On Thursday, NFL Commissioner Roger
Goodell said that the league would welcome an openly gay player.
“We'd be incredibly supportive of
this,” Goodell said on ESPN radio. “And not just to the point of
tolerance but to the point of acceptance.”