There are gay players in the NFL. The sheer volume of active players on the 32 rosters indicates gay players are on rosters. (As do recent stories like the one involving former San Francisco 49ers tackle Kwame Harris.)
Chris Culliver's anti-gay statements on Wednesday (and subsequent apologies) showed the kind of obstacles that the first openly gay player would face in the NFL. But Culliver's stance doesn't mean that every professional football player feels that way.
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"You see guys, you sometimes wonder, but it's not anyone's job to call them out or make fun of them. I really believe we should be able to look beyond that. It's 2013," Randy Moss said via CNN's Rachel Nichols on Thursday.
Moss was asked if an openly gay recruit would be treated fairly by NFL teams.
"I don't think we're ready to move past that, but we should be. We need to be able to move on and accept it," Moss said.
This was not a topic we expected to be raised during Super Bowl week, but its a compelling one. Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo, who fights for gay rights, spoke on the issue Thursday.
"You can't fight hate with hate. You have to fight hate with love. That was initial reaction," Ayanbadejo said via the New York Daily News.
49ers owner Jed York told Bay Area reporters that the comments were "uninformed" and "juvenile." Culliver's teammates felt bad for the cornerback, but they didn't let him off the hook.
"He knows he made a mistake and it's something he'll learn from," center Jonathan Goodwin said. "I think he made a mistake. We all have an opinion. We all have a choice. If someone's choice is not affecting you, then you can't be upset with people for their choices."
Follow Gregg Rosenthal on Twitter @greggrosenthal.
