The Dallas Cowboys play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to kick off the 2021 NFL season.
To be sure, the Bucs have their own history with the LGBTQ community, namely a really gay former logo, a tight end in Rob Gronkowski who’s professed his love for the gays, and the last team RK Russell played for in a regular-season game before coming out.
Yet the Cowboys have a deep, rich history with gay athletes and the LGBTQ community that we want to highlight headed into the NFL season kickoff.
The Cowboys have had at least 3 gay or bi players
Get off the sidelines and into the game
Our weekly playbook is packed with everything from locker room chatter to pressing LGBTQ sports issues.
Jeff Rohrer was a second-round pick in the 1982 NFL Draft and played for the legendary Tom Landry from 1982 to 1989. In 2018 he came out publicly shortly before marrying his now-husband, Joshua Ross.
In 2014, just four days after Michael Sam had been cut by the St. Louis Rams, the Cowboys picked up the defensive end for their practice squad. During his time with the team, owner Jerry Jones said him being gay is a non-issue. He’d be with the team for eight weeks before being released.
RK Russell was selected by the Cowboys in the fifth round of the 2015 NFL Draft. He came out as bi while a free agent in 2019. He still hopes to return to the league.
Troy Aikman rumors, and his own thoughts on choosing to be gay
It’s no secret that gay rumors have swirled for years around quarterback-turned-TV-commentator Troy Aikman. They were given some weight by sports clown Skip Bayless in a book about the Cowboys.
Aikman threw fuel on the fire in 2015 when he essentially said that he’s chosen to not date men, claiming that being gay is “a lifestyle people choose.”
Michael Irvin leads on acceptance of gay people, same-sex marriage
Years before the legalization of same-sex marriage or Michael Sam coming out, “The Playmaker” Michael Irvin talked about his love for his gay brother and his acceptance of same-sex marriage in deeply powerful ways.
“When we start talking about equality and everybody being treated equally,” Irvin said at the time, “I don’t want to know an African-American who will say everybody doesn’t deserve equality.”
Dez Bryant’s mom is a lesbian
Then-Cowboys top receiver Dez Bryant talked about his mother being gay in 2010, saying that he had struggled with it but had eventually come around to being “comfortable” with it.
A couple years later Bryant was arrested for allegedly assaulting his lesbian mother. Not much has been written about it since.
Bryant last played with the Cowboys in 2017 and is now a free agent.
Why Cowboys.com used to hook up gay cowboys with other gay cowboys
The URL cowboys.com doesn’t point to the Dallas Cowboys’ site, and there’s a reason for that. When the URL was up for auction about 15 years ago, some people who wanted to create a gay dating site won the bid. The backstory on that auction:
The winning bid of “275” at a silent auction was accepted, meaning $275,000, but a representative of the Dallas Cowboys thought it meant $275, and backed out. The domain eventually sold for $370,000.
The Dallas Cowboys are in fact online, at dallascowboys.com.
Two gay Cowboys fans were ESPN hits
For a couple of years, one of Outsports most-trafficked stories was a post about two gay Cowboys fans being highlighted by ESPN. Justin and Tim shared their love for one another, and their love for (what was then referred to as) America’s Team.
Jerry Jones wants ‘glory hole days’
Yes, you read that right. “I want me some glory hole.”
But if you don’t believe us, see for yourself:
