In a feature set to be released this Sunday, the Houston Chronicle (via Deadspin) reports that the 1993 Houston Oilers had two openly gay players on the team. In the writeup former Oiler and Pro-Bowler Cris Dishman commented that everybody knew these particular players were gay and that there was no issue in the locker room.
Here’s an excerpt from the article:
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.”
As Kyle Wagner from Deadspin states this is exactly the way you’d hope all NFL locker rooms would react when it came to openly gay teammates. It’s also further evidence that there’s no reason why not only an NFL locker room but all professional and amateur locker rooms could react the same way. This is especially considering this particular occurrence happened 20 years ago.
h/t: Deadspin, Houston Chronicle
