A former Dallas Cowboys draft pick has come out as bisexual.
Free agent defensive end Ryan Russell opened up about his sexuality in a first-person essay on ESPN. Russell spent most of 2018 out of football, but has played for the Cowboys and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He started seven games in 2017 for the Buccaneers.
Russell, a 2015 fifth-round draft pick, said he wants to return to the NFL and “live life openly.”
“I want to be able to dedicate my life to football without feel like I can’t dedicate my life to truth as well,” Russell said.
Russell reveals he was almost outed after his rookie season by a gossip blogger. At the time, Russell was in a relationship with a man and the blogger messaged him found out.
After begging him not to publish the story, the blogger agreed — saying he’d grant him the favor, but he should be more careful.
“Let that sink into your brain: Even though openly LGBTQ people are thriving in every area of public life — politics, entertainment, the top corporations in America — they are so invisible in pro sports that a gossip blogger is doing a favor for a bisexual football player by not disclosing that he happens to date men,” Russell said. “Nobody should need a favor to live honestly. In nobody’s worlds should being careful mean not being yourself.
“The career you choose shouldn’t dictate the parts of yourself that you embrace.”
Just 27, Russell is attempting an NFL comeback. He failed to make the Buffalo Bills’ final roster last year and was cut after the preseason.
You can read the whole essay here.
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