The NFL Draft this weekend has the potential to change the life of former Middle Tennessee State kicker Alan Gendreau and affect gay rights supporters nationwide. Gendreau, if drafted, would be the first openly gay player in any of the four major professional men’s sports leagues.
“I’m a kicker that happens to be gay,” Gendreau [said to the New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/sports/ncaafootball/nfl-hopeful-announces-he-is-gay.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0). “It’s a part of who I am and not everything I am. I just want to be known as a normal kicker.”
Gendreau’s lax attitude about potentially becoming a huge mile marker in the gay rights movement is admirable. The environment of the NFL Draft is stressful on its own without the added pressure of representing the LGBTQ population for the first time in the NFL.
Despite Gendreau’s attempt to become the first openly gay player, NFL Players Association president Domonique Foxworth told a Baltimore radio station that the league is preparing for one of its current players to come out.
“We’ve had quite a few meetings with a number of organizations to help educate our players,” Foxworth said to the radio station. “It’s important that we educate our guys and be ready for this inevitability.”
This comes after [CBS Sports columnist Mike Freeman said](http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/blog/mike-freeman/21946093/some-believe-atmosphere-is-safe-for-gay-nfl-player-to-come-out) he’s been told a current gay NFL player is “strongly considering coming out publicly within the next few months – and after doing so, the player would attempt to continue his career.”
This player’s coming out or Gendreau’s being drafted would be a necessary and vital step in the right direction for disintegrating the homophobia that sometimes exists in the sports world.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Rick Welts, Golden State Warriors president, said Nike would potentially endorse the first openly gay player in any of the four major professional sports leagues.
“They made it clear to me Nike would embrace it,” Welts said to Bloomberg. “The player who does it — they’re going to be amazed at the additional opportunities that are put on the table, not the ones that are taken off.”
The Bloomberg article also goes on to reference Bob Witeck, a gay-marketing strategist, who said “the first openly gay team-sport athlete — provided he’s a recognizable name — would earn millions in endorsements and speaking engagements from companies seeking to capture more of a U.S. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adult population whose annual buying power he pegs at almost $800 billion.”
The advertising and sponsorship of an openly gay athlete as described by Witeck is an almost unbelievable advancement in the gay rights movement.
However, it makes me a bit weary.
Coming out is an incredibly hard and brave act — especially for someone under the kind of spotlight a professional athlete endures. I don’t want athletes to be tempted by the potential monetary gains and come out sooner than they are ready for. If we are going to have an openly gay athlete, they are going to need to come out on their own terms — not the terms established by potential sponsorship or endorsement deals.
So my message to closeted athletes is this: come out whenever you feel like it. Our society is more prepared to embrace and accept you than ever before, and young, struggling LGBTQ youth could use your guidance. Talk it over with your friends, family and teammates and decide for yourself, not for anyone else.
