The Houston Oilers Had Two (Mostly) Openly Gay Players In 1993

Two players on the 1993 Houston Oilers were gay, and their teammates knew and didn't care, according to the.

The Chronicle has a big feature coming this Sunday on the 1993 team, but in a preview released today, it reveals that there were players that "everybody knew" were gay, according to former Pro-Bowler Cris Dishman, but that it wasn't an issue in the locker room. That's how you'd hope that would play out, but it's hard to be sure—especially 20 years ago. Here's the money quote from today's preview:

Not only did the team know about the situation, but players accepted their gay teammates and did not outcast them.

"Listen, those guys that we're talking about were unbelievable teammates. And if you wanted to go to war with someone, you would get those guys first. Because I have never seen tougher guys than those guys," said Pro Bowl linebacker Lamar Lathon, who starred at the University of Houston. "And everybody in the locker room, the consensus knew or had an idea that things were not exactly right. But guess what? When they strapped the pads on and got on the field, man, we were going to war with these guys because they were unbelievable."

So there you go. Football players can be gay and function perfectly well within an NFL locker room. Now would someone mind telling the NFL?

[ Houston Chronicle]