Out former Patriot Ryan O’Callaghan on those ‘deeply closeted’ NFL players

Via YouTube

Former New England Patriots footballer Ryan O’Callaghan has opened up about his struggle with coming out in the NFL.

“I only played football because it was a cover for me. I never loved football. I sold out,” O’Callaghan says. The confession came as part of his new memoir, My Life on the Line: How the NFL Damn Near Killed Me and Ended Up Saving My Life about his years spent playing professional football, living as a closeted gay man, and eventually coming out.

Originally from Redding, California, O’Callagahan says that homophobia in sports kept him scared and in the closet for years. Unfortunately, that homophobia began affecting him from an early age. “It was more the words that came out of their mouths, negatively, towards the gay community that stuck with me,” O’Callaghan said. “As a kid, kids hear the things their father says and their uncle says and that time in your life, you take it to heart.”

O’Callaghan avoided anything that had to do with queer culture and acted like a bully on the team to conceal his anger. Even in college, he…

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