If you think it’s hard being gay in the NFL today, imagine what it was like
in the 1960s and ’70s. Yet at one point the Washington Redskins had two gay
players on the team: Jerry Smith, a tight end, and David Kopay, a running back.
And a new documentary from the NFL Network captures
the brief moment when the two shared one night together.
Smith was a star on the team, and according to the film, A
Football Life, he struggled with the closet throughout his career. While
many teammates knew that he was gay, Smith never discussed his sexuality
openly. Amazingly, Smith found a protector in Redskins coach Vince Lombardi,
who had a gay brother. Lombardi, who was notoriously tough, made it clear to
the team that he would not tolerate any homophobic outburst directed at gay
players.
That included David Kopay, a journeyman player on the team. In the
film, Kopay recalls the night he and Smith went out drinking and wound up in
bed together. It is a heartbreaking vignette.
“I thought this was really good,” Kopay says. “At least I was
sharing something of myself with someone who’s close and understood all that I
had been through and understood so much of what we hoped for would come. And
that’s where we left it. And it never happened again.”
After retiring, Kopay write an autobiography, published in 1977,
when he became one of the first professional athletes to come out. In the book,
he recounts having sex with another athlete, for whom he uses an alias. Smith never spoke to Kopay after that.
A few months before his death from AIDS in 1986, Smith gave an
interview to the Washington Post where he spoke candidly about
his disease. ”I want people to know what I’ve been through and how
terrible this disease is,” Smith said. “Maybe it will help people understand.”
But even then, Smith would not come out as gay.
The documentary is playing throughout the month on ESPN and can also be viewed on ESPN.com
No comments:
Post a Comment