Former New England Patriots Ryan O’Callaghan spoke out in an Outsports article about the recent online postings by current Patriots running back TreVeyon Henderson, in which Henderson, citing personal religious beliefs, supported a pro basketball player’s own online postings of anti-LGBTQ+ messages. The NBA player’s remarks led to that player being cut from his team.
Reports Outsports:
If he had heard something like it when he was playing in the NFL, O’Callaghan said he’d try to get his teammate some psychological help.
“The first thing I would do is find information about a sports psychologist and discretely leave it in his locker,” O’Callaghan said.
Yet O’Callaghan said that more important to him as a gay player in sports would have been the comments from Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, who has responded to Henderson’s comments with messages of inclusion.
“I think hearing the comment from my head coach, what Mike just said, would make me feel welcome,” O’Callaghan said. He has previously discussed his former teammate Vrabel being one of the first people to contact him after he came out publicly as gay. “Because that’s just one easily replaceable running back who’s clearly not fitting the culture they’re trying to build.”
The gay former football player said he’d never heard anything like Henderson’s online anti-gay screed from any of his teammates in college or the NFL.
“Not even close. Every team I’ve ever been on, college and both NFL teams, there were always the religious guys. They’d do things like hand out personalized Bibles. But it was never like this.
“It was just them giving access to their beliefs, which is totally fine.”
Where will the Patriots go with Henderson? The Patriots have yet to respond publicly as a team. Robert Kraft has been one of the most pro-LGBTQ owners in all of major American pro sports.