Former Dallas Cowboys linebacker Jeff Rohrer has come out as gay, and he will marry his partner of two years, Joshua Ross, this Sunday, November 18. He will be the first known former or current NFL player in a same-sex marriage.
Rohrer played in the NFL from 1982-1988 and is now a L.A.-based award-winning producer of TV commercials. His partner, Ross, is a skin-care expert and founder of SkinLab.
“I’m sure there’s going to be some people out there who have a negative reaction to this,” Rohrer told The New York Times, “and I’m fine with it.”
“If I had told the Dallas Cowboys in the 1980s that I was gay, I would have been cut immediately,” he continued. “It was a different world back then, people didn’t want to hear that.”
According to OutSports, over the course of his six seasons with the Cowboys “he started 41 games for legendary coach Tom Landry, racking up 7.5 sacks and four fumble recoveries, all in his final four seasons.”
Rohrer told OutSports that he used his upcoming wedding as a way to come out to some friends. When he sent out the invitations earlier this year some of them replied with “Oh, you’re so funny,” he told the sports site, adding that they thought it was just a joking way to invite them to his 60th birthday party.
“People are floored,” Rohrer said, after he explained to them it was not a joke. “I guess I was a really good actor.”