To ex-Patriots offensive linemen Ryan O’Callaghan, football was more than just a sport, a way to burn energy as a kid or even a way to provide a full-ride to college — it was a matter of life or death.
What his old teammates didn’t know then is that O’Callaghan was caught between whether or not to take his own life in fear of being judged for being gay. The product of the University of California, boasting an incredible height of 6’7 and 330 pounds, came out publicly as gay in an Outsports story published on Tuesday.
O’Callaghan, who spent six seasons in the NFL between the New York Patriots and Kansas Chiefs, told Outsports he first realized he was gay in junior high school but that he didn’t come out to anyone until the end of his career, when he started counseling sessions over his abuse of painkillers.
