In the wake of the recent news that one NFL team asked a prospect at the combine whether he liked men, the league is taking action to help curb homophobia. TMZ Sports spoke with a former NFL player, Wade Davis, who will be in charge of running a clinic for NFL coaches and staff addressing homophobia.
Davis, who played for the Seattle Seahawks, Tennessee Titans and Washington Redskins, came out as gay after his career was over. Since then, he’s become the Director of Professional Sports Outreach for the You Can Play Project — “an organization committed to ridding homophobia in pro sports,” per TMZ Sports.
“I have been in contact with the NFL and I’ll be running a training/clinic in the off-season for coaches and staff to address this issue,” Davis said. “[I want them to] understand the physical, emotional and spiritual cost to creating a hostile environment for gay male athletes.”
Based on a couple of high-profile events in the league’s recent history, it’s clear the NFL still has a way to go before gay players will feel comfortable coming out to their teammates and coaches. That said, there have been some positive steps taken to remedy this, and one ex-player does think an NFL locker room would be accepting of a gay player now.
The fact that a prospect was asked about his sexuality at the combine last month, however, shows there could still be a stigma attached to being a homosexual in today’s NFL. Davis, and others, are committed to changing this.