Roy Simmons, the 2nd former NFL player to come out as gay, has just released his autobiography, Out of Bounds. The book went on sale last week and is available on Amazon.

The January 2006 issue of Out magazine excerpts a few salacious passages from the autobiography, including Simmons' tale of working the bathhouses in cities like Atlanta, San Fran, and Dallas, and getting high with a teammate at a NYC nightclub and performing oral sex on him after driving back to his house in NJ.

Roy Simmons also discusses other players who set off his gaydar, including two players whom he thought were an item. "They were too buddy-buddy to be a heterosexual friendship. They waited for each other to come out of the shower in the locker room, waited for each other to come out of practice ... they were inseparable."

It will be interesting to see how the corporate media react to this book. Will it be hyped or hushed (like the Danton affair)?...

Fixed URL - Outsports moderator

[ January 13, 2006, 08:10 PM: Message edited by: Tarkus ]

2nd??? Leaving out a couple of people aren't we?

Tualo, Smith, and Kopay all blazed an earlier trail. Credit where it is due.

R

Technically, Simmons came out before Tuaolo. And I'm not sure Smith ever really came out so much as was outed by his AIDS status.

Couldn't get that link to work so I searched Amazon through the Outsports link: copied here.

The Amazon link above in the original post is skewing the entire page. Again, again, again I keep having to repeat this -- USE THE URL BUTTON to post links. Better yet, ignore that link entirely and just click on the Amazon link on the Outsports home page (like sportinlife just did) so that you can help support Outsports.

The Danton affair is very much different -- especially since Danton won't tell the truth about his life, whatever it may be. There's not much the media can do if he won't speak up.

I imagine there won't be a lot of hype about Roy Simmons because he's not really famous for anything else. He'll do the usual talk shows and then it will all fade away. Unless he did the unthinkable and named names, of course.

[ December 27, 2005, 03:33 PM: Message edited by: Joe in Philly ]

I think you're comparing apples and oranges there. I still don't think Danton is gay. I think he was definitely under an unusual influence of his agent, but I really don't think there was a gay component to it. A fairer comparison would be to Billy Bean's book a few years back, which I think did fairly well...

When googling Simmons I came across this link which seems to imply he has left his gay life behind him.

I would be interested in knowing where he (Simmons) stands on the subject of his homosexuality now. Gay? "Ex-Gay"? Ex Ex-Gay? Seems odd that he would release such a book if he were claiming to be ex-gay unless the book concludes with his "redemption" and "rehabilitation". Considering the source of the story, the 700 club, who knows if it's true or not. Virtually every person on posters and in books promoting the "ex-gay" movement are ex ex-gays that have denounced the organizations that promote reparative threrapy. So even if the 700 club's story was true, but he has "regressed" back to his evil ways, they will continue to use him as a poster boy for their ridiculous and dangerous propaganda.

[ December 27, 2005, 04:30 PM: Message edited by: UMRebel/Bucfan ]

Before you open your mouth and pretend to correct others, you would be well advised to open a book and get your facts straight. (No pun intended.) ...

FireMikeTiceNow is quite correct to note that Simmons did come out before Tuaolo (on Donahue in 1992) and Smith never publicly acknowledged his homosexuality. He was outted by virtue of his AIDS-related death. Dave Kopay was indeed the first NFL player to come out--I never said otherwise.

[ December 27, 2005, 10:26 PM: Message edited by: Jim at Outsports ]

Which "Smith" are we talking about???

This December 1, 2003 Outsports story suggests he self-identified as gay at the time. Unless he has said otherwise since, I would assume he is not currently "ex-gay".

Jerry Smith. Played for the Redskins '69 and '70. Died of AIDS in 1987. He never publically stated that he was gay but David Kopay has talked about him being gay and that he (Kopay) had his first gay experience with him.

The info at Amazon says he's the second to come out in the NFL, but Amazon doesn't say who they believe the first was.

Oh, and they say he's the first HIV poz NFL player to come out as poz.

Read thru his book, quite a sad tale that focuses as much if not more on his demons of drug use/abuse than his sexuality issues.

It appears that even as the book is wrapped up that Simmons still is uncertain as to whether he will ever kick the coke/crack habit that destroyed his football career and his life after it.

A decent book, a sad tale at that.

Esera Tuaolo's book Alone in the Trenches: My Life as a Gay Man in the NFL is due out in March.

I wrote about Roy Simmons' appearance on Howard Stern.

Funny, I don't remember any mention in the book on the 700 Club or reference to a "former lifestyle". Seems like a man who's still finding his path throught the wilderness.

Let's just hope that with that counseling job of his, he's not leading others into it as well.

My sense also. I suspect he has tried just about every path to stay sober and healthy. I don't hold his 700 Club comments against him.

What "wilderness" are you referring to here?

Roy Simmons was on ESPN's Cold Pizza this morning. But I knew the questions were going to be soft and they sure were. I'm sure Howard Stern's interview was more entertertaining.

For one, his constant battle with drugs that has put him in such a hole.

Maybe it's just me, but someone who is comfortable with being gay wouldn't be the type of person to renounce his "former lifestyle" on a religious show such as that.

I meant that he's making his way through the wilderness to self-acceptance of who he is. Just not certain he's there yet.

So really both the drugs(not sure he's kicked the habit) and being gay(not sure he's totally accepting of himself, at least not on the 700 Club)

If a publisher thought that his story (now so old) would sell... Imagine the money a prorfessional athlete could make by coming out of the closet while still in the game? God, I wish I were a third-string waterboy: movie contracts, book deals, and more money to give a talk than even Billy Bean gets.

Heidi Collins just did a report on Roy Simmons on Anderson Cooper 360.

Have Simmons and Esera ever appeared on the same TV show?