Gay men in locker room

Perkins’ coming-out story made a splash, but his modest college career didn’t translate into a place on a pro roster. I’m pretty sure I blushed.

At the same time, textbook toxic masculinity was in full effect. 

Hazing, Gender Roles, and the Dark Side of Male Dominance

Guys took advantage of groupies, girls who exclusively slept with players.

That same year, he starred in his Netflix series, Coming Out Colton. I wouldn't trade the experience because I loved the sport and graduated college with zero student-loan debt. 

But it took me years, and a lot of therapy, to come to grips with the fact that my parents introduced me to football as preparation for life in America.

My mother and my late father wanted to protect me from a country that was unkind to Black boys, and cruel to Black boys who acted gay. Masculinity, we know, is a spectrum and not binary, as I’d been taught. He later married political strategist Jordan C. Brown in May 2023, and the couple is now expecting their first child.

He described the locker room environment as both homophobic and homoerotic, with mixed messages that made it a confusing and hostile place for someone closeted.

Underwood shared that he avoided showering with his teammates and even refrained from partying, worried that alcohol might lead him to reveal his true self. I also happened to live right next to the Payne Whitney Gym (the university gym) for three of my four years there, and jocks wearing Adidas blue and white slides and various team uniforms in this exact color scheme were constantly in my sight as I get out for classes in the morning, and walked back home for dinner in the evening.

If they caught a boy screwing around, he’d get pulled aside as a coach whipped out a cheap 70s label-maker.

The absence of openly gay players in football made him hesitant to come out, fearing it would be a distraction to his teammates and coach.