Famous Former Linebacker Comes Out
Jeff Rohrer, former linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys, just made history by coming out as gay.
Anyone who has been following the saga of American football knows that there has been a big struggle over the past few years to reconcile football player’s public images with the lives they actually live. Things like athletes coming out, refusing to stand for the national anthem as a protest against people of color being murdered, and athletes coming out as a cannabis users who reject prescription pills have rocked the straight, conservative world that contains a lot of football fans.
Now, football lovers who support LGBTQ rights have another reason to rejoice, while conservative fans may see this as another blow. According to New Now Next, Rohrer will marry his partner of two years, Joshua Ross, this Sunday, November 18. This will make him the first known NFL player in a same-gender marriage.
Rohrer is now a producer of commercials, and his partner and soon-to-be husband, Joshua Ross, is a skin care expert and founder of the company SkinLab.
“I’m sure there’s going to be some people out there who have a negative reaction to this,” Rohrer told The New York Times, “and I’m fine with it. If I had told the Dallas Cowboys in the 1980s that I was gay, I would have been cut immediately. It was a different world back then, people didn’t want to hear that.”
Apparently, Rohrer was so in the closet before this announcement that most of his friends thought it was a joke when he sent out a wedding announcement saying he as marrying a man. They thought it was a humorous way of announcing his 60th birthday party.
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