The lack of a platform: How the NFL has shoved the closet door shut on it's gay athletes

"You’d like to come out, but there will be a steep price. You’ll never be a blue-chip prospect, and you’ll never play for the Packers or the Vikings. Oregon State won’t offer a scholarship to the gay nosetackle, no matter how big he is. You have to find someone to talk to, someone you can trust. Guess what: Guidance counselors can’t discuss the things you share unless they feel your mother needs to know. Is it worth the risk? Probably not." ~ Esera Tuaolo: former Packers nose tackle

After Peter King and Sports Illustrated debuted their brand new website: The MMQB a couple weeks ago, they have already amassed tens of ground breaking and eye opening articles.

But for me, one stood out. Approximately 2 weeks ago, writer Robert Klemko helped organize a project in which former NFL'ers and now openly gay allumni: Esera Tuaolo and David Kopay wrote short letters to their former selves each addressed to a different age.

As I read through this 6 page, 2,567 word collection of gripping testaments and pleas for the reader (in this case a theoretical 13,15,16,17, or 18) year old version of Tuaolo or Kopay to "just hang in there...things get better, I was shocked.

Throughout my life, I have been immersed in the world of tolerance and understanding as my family has constantly reminded me of the atrocities that lie within the human spirit. There are good people in this world, but unfortunately for guys like Tuaolo and Kopay there are also bad ones and as it stands those bad people stand among every walk of life. There are white supremacy groups, screaming the N word with the utmost anger or a Philadelphia Eagles receiver named Riley Cooper doing the same at a country music consort. And there are the hate criminals who kidnapped Matthew Sheppard from a Seattle restaurant all before they murdered him in the cruelest of fashions. There are bad people everywhere...even in football. 

Yes, as much as Rodger Godell hates to admit it, there are deeper darker facets of his game that delve far beyond the illuminated green and white of his 32 stadium's night games. There is racism, murder and DUI but in a far more hidden form of hate there is homophobia.  

"You’ll never be a blue-chip prospect, and you’ll never play for the Packers or the Vikings. Oregon State won’t offer a scholarship to the gay nose tackle, no matter how big he is." Tuaolo said slightly eluding to a drastically false stereotype that has poisoned the gay community and has served as an unfair road block in the path a gay athlete takes before coming out. Supposedly 'men' are supposed to be 'tough' and according to countless hecklers and homophobic fans, homosexual males are not. 

But what truth does that have behind it. Among the 4 NFL'ers who have identified as being gay, post career, (no active players has ever come out) 3 of them have played a position that has them at the line of scrimmage battling 300 pound offensive linemen all before they get slammed to the ground and get back up. As for the 4th, he plays running back, a position that after we all watched Adrian Peterson's grueling rehab work, we all know the pain and setbacks that position constantly serves those who attempt to master it.

Those 4 men: Tuaolo, David Kopay, Roy Simmons and Wade Davis are no less 'tough' than their straight teammates but still those bad people do not care. As it stands, 3.4% of Americans are openly gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. That 3.4 percentile amounts to about 10 million gay citizens in this United States alone. As for the NFL, not a single one of the mere 4 alumni who have come out were in such a situation when they were drafted. As terrible as it is, the 1st two sentences of Tuaolo's letter to his 16 year old self are almost entirely true. 

On this August 9th 2013 if you are an openly gay high school senior who loves to play football, you are staring down the barrel of a metaphorical gun pointed right at your face. It is shooting bullets for sure but those bullets are not made of any sort of metal. No, those bullets are sentences all screaming the same thing. As awful as it is, not a single openly gay football player has ever been drafted to an NFL team. Zero.  

But is does not have to be that way. We were showed that back on April 29th. 

"My name is Jason Collins, I am 34 years old, I am black and I am Gay" Former Celtic guard: Jason Collins said in a 1st person article published in Sports Illustrated on that date.  

At that point and even now, months later he remains the only ACTIVE NBA, NFL, NHL or MLB athlete to ever come out of the closet. But on that 29th day of April, Collins began to poise a similar sense of hope. Up until that day no one had ever come out but once Collins did, one began to wonder if he would become the platform that other players needed to help them come out. 

But unfortunately things didn't work out that way. As great and as brave as Collins’ deeds were, the expected outreach of another NBA team hoeing to sign him has not come thus drawing up some weak accusations of discrimination on the part of NBA front office members. 

"Right now, you think there’s nobody who’s experiencing life the way you are, but there are literally thousands of people who are going through the exact same thing." Tuaolo said. 

"You think there’s nobody who’s experiencing life the way you are," and that is harshest of truths that plagues the world of the pro football. There is no platform for a closeted athlete to come out. Instead all that there is, is discrimination, screams of "F****t" from the mouths of fans, and the terrible stat that no active NFL player has ever come out...and that needs to change. 

"Come out. With the support from the community, the LGBT organizations, it would be an amazing experience to take that step. It would make you so much more complete­—and definitely a better athlete. You wouldn’t be worrying about the stress. You’d be worried about yourself and making sure you’re happy. That’s more important than football. It’s the most important thing." Tuaolo said in a letter to active ,NFL, gay, players. 

To read the entire collection of letters click here