Robbie Rogers lifted a giant weight from his shoulders Friday morning. The former (for now) US national team attacker came out of the closet, penning a moving and heartfelt post on his personal blog, and announced that he's stepping away from the game for an indefinite period of time.
Coming out of the closet is fraught, especially in the testosterone driven world of men's professional sports. We saw a slice of that in the lead-up to this year's Super Bowl, when San Francisco 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver said a gay player wouldn't be accepted in the locker room. And we've all heard words we wish we hadn't in the stands, be it football, baseball, hockey or basketball.
Ex-Crew MF Testo: Being a gay athlete incredibly hard
And, of couse, we had our own moments here in MLS last season, when two players were suspended for using a gay slur on the playing field. Both – Colin Clark, now with the LA Galaxy, and Marc Burch of the Seattle Sounders – apologized profusely. Both showed remorse, and did volunteer work aimed toward promoting tolerance and understanding.
Their mistakes helped shed more light on the challenges gay athletes face. And Burch – who still has one game to go on his suspension from last season – was one of the first to take to Twitter to show his support for Rogers:
Pretty much the rest of MLS and US soccer - including Clark - soon followed:
We'll leave it to US national team and Seattle Sounders legend Kasey Keller to sum it up:
Indeed he will. And the same goes for whoever is next to open the closet door.
