Princeton’s Mason Darrow becomes only openly gay college footballer
By Will Stroude
Princeton has welcomed its first openly gay college football player in the form of offensive linesman Mason Darrow.
Darrow, who is believed to currently be the only openly gay college player in the US, follows in the footsteps of Michael Sam, who came at as gay at the end of his college career before briefly being drafted into the NFL.
Darrow, who’s originally from Illinois, told his team mates at the end of last season about his sexuality, but ahead of the new college football season has come out to the world in an in-depth profile with Outsports, explaining that even though people don’t consider it a “big deal” anymore, he wants to set an example to other players who may be struggling to come out.
“I want to show people you can be gay and play Division I football,” the 6ft 5″ offensive linebacker says. “If that’s going to help some sophomore in Arizona come out to his teammates and be comfortable in himself, that’s the reason I’m doing it.”
He continues: “People will surprise you. I was definitely concerned that people, teammates, would react poorly. I think in this day and age people really just don’t care about it. It’s really not a big deal anymore.”
In the profile, Darrow also recalls the moment he came out to the team’s coach, Bob Surace, after asking him for a “talk”.
“That’s great,” Surace said. “Geez, I thought you were injured!”
Discussing Darrow’s recent news, Surace adds that it has no bearing on the team, saying: “Here at Princeton, if we can’t handle this and say, ‘We’re supportive of everybody no matter what their background, religion, race or sexual orientation,’ then we don’t have the right guys in the locker room.
“We’re going to support Mason 100%”.
Good on ya Mason. With the recent notable announcements of rugby league player Keegan Hirst and sevens star Sam Stanley too, the doors of those locker room closets are really starting to come crashing down now, right?
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