Colton Underwood was set to release years ago, but something stopped him from doing so.
On Thursday, May 13, The Bachelor alum spoke to Variety and revealed that he initially wanted to come out in 2014 when he was drafted into the NFL. That year, Michael Sam came out, the league’s first openly gay draft. Underwood was first signed as a free agent with the San Diego Chargers before being added to the practice teams of the Philidelphia Eagles and then the Oakland Raiders.
Underwood said he regretted not being brave enough to come out at the time. It was the other players and their homophobic reactions to the news of Sam that kept him from coming out at the time.
“The football and sports community is not ready for gay people,” Underwood said on the exit.
Underwood ended up having a heart-to-heart conversation with Sam. “I said, ‘I just want you to know that you should have given me the confidence to stand up and say,’ You’re not alone. . ‘But unfortunately I went to another locker room. And I told him: “In the locker room I was in, they didn’t say nice things about you,” “he recalls.
Underwood said he apologized to Sam because he could have helped him by going out as well.
“But I didn’t have the guts and I wasn’t at a point in my life that I was ready to go out – if anything, Michael Sam going out and being so public about it put me back again. more in the closet because I didn’t want to be like Michael, in that I didn’t want it to be negative or bad, ”he admitted.
Underwood shared that although he lived an inauthentic life at the time, “it was easy for me to dive into football and hide behind it.” It wasn’t until he left the NFL that he realized he couldn’t hide behind it anymore.
“And then football, I remember there were a few weird months in my life where I was like, ‘What now, now that football is gone? I can’t hide there, so where can I hide now? And then The Bachelor fell on my knees, and then before you know it, I’m The Bachelor. There was always something to dive into. “
