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David Kopay

David Marquette Kopay (born June 28, 1942) is a former American football running back who played nine seasons in the National Football League (NFL) from 1964 to 1972 across five teams, including the San Francisco 49ers, where he led the squad in rushing as a rookie. After retiring, Kopay gained prominence in 1975 by publicly declaring his homosexuality in an interview, becoming the first NFL player and one of the earliest professional team-sport athletes to do so openly. He chronicled his career, personal struggles, and experiences with sexuality in the 1977 autobiography The David Kopay Story: An Extraordinary Self-Revelation, co-authored with Perry Deane Young, which detailed his Catholic upbringing, athletic drive, and post-retirement revelations. Kopay's disclosure faced significant backlash in the conservative sports culture of the era but positioned him as a pioneering advocate for homosexual rights, influencing subsequent discussions on athlete visibility despite limited immediate policy changes in the NFL.

Early Life and Education

Family Background and Upbringing

David Kopay was born in , , in 1942, the second of four children to parents Anton Kopay and Marguerite Kopay, who came from a working-class background. His older brother Anthony, born in 1940, and younger siblings—a brother and a sister named , born in 1947—completed the family. The Kopays were devout Roman Catholics, instilling strict religious observance in their children from an early age. The family relocated to North Hollywood, California, during Kopay's years, where they lived in amid a tense household environment. Anton and Marguerite's marriage was marked by unhappiness, frequent arguments, , and occasional physical conflict, creating an atmosphere of instability without overt displays of parental affection. In , Kopay became an altar boy, drawn to the church for its sense of community and structure, which contrasted with the domestic strife. This Catholic emphasis profoundly influenced his youth, leading him in his early teens to enter a junior seminary in an attempt to align with religious ideals and escape home pressures, though he left after 18 months.

Athletic Development and College Career

Kopay honed his skills at High School in Sherman Oaks, California, emerging as a standout player recognized for his hard-nosed style and uncommon discipline. He earned selection to the all-Catholic conference all-star team and attracted heavy recruitment, securing multiple college scholarships. In 1961, Kopay enrolled at the on a football scholarship, where he played for the Huskies from 1961 to 1963. During his freshman year, he recorded 34 rushing yards on 9 attempts and 24 receiving yards. His season saw limited action, with 10 rushing yards on 4 attempts and 12 receiving yards. As a junior in 1963, Kopay broke out with 319 rushing yards on 75 attempts (4.3 yards per carry) and 4 rushing touchdowns, plus 175 receiving yards; he ranked ninth in the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) in rushing yards and yards per attempt, and third in rushing touchdowns. Kopay served as co-captain of the 1963 Huskies squad, helping lead the team to an invitation to the 1964 , where Washington faced . His performance earned him All-American honors. In addition to athletics, Kopay joined the fraternity at Washington.

Professional Football Career

NFL Draft and Rookie Season

Kopay was not selected in the after a standout college career at the , where he had been a second-team All-PCC selection in 1963. He signed with the as an undrafted and earned a roster spot as a halfback, beginning his professional career with the team. During his rookie season in , Kopay appeared in 14 games for the 49ers, starting 6, and led the team in rushing with 75 carries for 271 yards at an average of 3.6 yards per attempt, though he recorded no rushing touchdowns. He also provided value in the passing game, recording 20 receptions for 135 yards and 2 receiving touchdowns, while adding 2 kickoff returns for 30 yards. Overall, his totaled 436, contributing to a 4-10 team that ranked near the bottom of the league in rushing offense.

Mid-Career Team Transitions and Performance

Kopay transitioned from the to the prior to the 1968 season, where he served primarily as a and special teams contributor. In 14 games with five starts, he recorded 53 rushing attempts for 207 yards and no rushing touchdowns, alongside 18 receptions for 130 yards. This marked his most productive rushing output since his rookie year, though his role remained limited amid competition from established backs like Nick Pietrosante. Following the 1968 campaign, Kopay signed with the Washington Redskins for the 1969 and 1970 seasons under coach . His offensive involvement diminished significantly, with only three rushing attempts for four yards in 13 games during 1969 and 13 attempts for 49 yards in 12 games the next year, both seasons featuring minimal starts and a focus on special teams duties. Receiving contributions were modest, totaling 13 catches for 84 yards across the two years without touchdowns. Kopay joined the expansion in 1971, appearing in 10 games without recording any rushing or receiving statistics, indicative of a purely special teams role amid the team's rebuilding efforts. He concluded his career with the in 1972, playing all 14 games with 10 rushing attempts for 39 yards and three receptions for 19 yards, again without starts or touchdowns.
YearTeamGames PlayedStartsRush Att/Yds/TDRec/Yds/TD
1968DET14553/207/018/130/0
1969WAS1303/4/06/60/0
1970WAS12113/49/07/24/0
1971NOR1000/0/00/0/0
1972GNB14010/39/03/19/0
These mid-career statistics reflect Kopay's evolution into a player, with cumulative rushing totals of 79 attempts for 299 yards and no touchdowns from 1968 to 1972, underscoring limited opportunities as a primary ball carrier.

Retirement from the NFL

Kopay's NFL tenure concluded with the during the 1972 season, in which he appeared in all 14 games without recording a start, limited to 10 rushing attempts for 39 yards and three receptions for 19 yards. Across his nine-year professional career from 1964 to 1972, spanning stints with the (1964–1967), (1968), Washington Redskins (1969–1970), (1971), and Packers, Kopay played in 111 games, primarily as a special teams contributor and reserve , accumulating 876 rushing yards on 235 carries with three rushing touchdowns alongside 77 receptions for 593 yards and four receiving touchdowns. At age 30, Kopay retired from after the 1972 season, having secured no further playing contracts amid a career marked by team transitions and a shift toward specialized roles rather than featured offensive contributions.

Coming Out as Gay

Internal Struggles and Decision Process

Kopay experienced profound over his sexuality throughout his career from 1964 to 1972, marked by denial and fear of exposure in a hyper-masculine environment. He initially resisted identifying as gay, viewing himself as distinct from stereotypical gay men, and engaged in secretive sexual encounters, including one with Washington Redskins teammate Jerry Smith, while concealing these from the team. This suppression led to significant emotional strain, with Kopay later recalling being "terrified that someone would find out" and undergoing therapies, such as hypnotism, in attempts to alter his orientation, though a therapist ultimately affirmed his homosexuality. By the end of the 1969 season with , Kopay privately acknowledged his to himself, yet continued hiding it amid professional pressures that demanded conformity to heterosexual norms. Teammates later expressed astonishment at his on-field performance given the "internal strain," while Kopay described a growing sense of suffocation from living a double life, exacerbating . After retiring in 1972, Kopay's struggles intensified as he pursued coaching positions but faced rejections, including from , attributing this to unspoken homophobia despite remaining . This desperation culminated in contemplating , as the burden of concealment became unbearable, prompting a resolve that "I couldn’t live a lie anymore." The decisive trigger occurred on December 9, 1975, when a Washington Star article alluded to a gay player—implicitly Jerry Smith—leading Kopay, encouraged by reporter Lynn Rossellini, to contact the paper and publicly disclose his to affirm authenticity and aid others facing similar isolation. He anticipated personal destruction but prioritized ending the deception over career prospects, marking a shift from suppression to revelation without initial plans for advocacy or book promotion.

Public Announcement in 1975

In December 1975, David Kopay publicly disclosed his in an interview with journalist Lynn Rosellini, published in on December 11. This followed Kopay's reading of Rosellini's earlier series in the same newspaper, which began on December 9 and examined the challenges faced by gay athletes in , including claims of hidden homosexual players and barriers to openness. Motivated by frustration with the portrayal of secrecy and hardship, Kopay contacted Rosellini directly to provide his firsthand account as a retired who had played for five teams from 1964 to 1972. In the interview, Kopay detailed his lifelong awareness of his , beginning in , and the compartmentalization required to maintain a heterosexual facade during his and career, including marriages attempted to suppress his attractions. He emphasized that his experiences did not align with stereotypes of or weakness, asserting that in sports could perform at elite levels without compromising or team dynamics, countering the article's anonymous sources who suggested otherwise. Kopay's revelation marked him as the first former male athlete from a major North American to come out publicly, predating similar disclosures by over a decade and drawing immediate national attention amid the era's limited societal acceptance of .

Post-Coming Out Professional and Personal Challenges

Blacklisting from Coaching and Employment

Following his public announcement as gay on December 9, 1975, Kopay pursued opportunities in the and at collegiate levels, leveraging his nine seasons of professional experience as a . However, he encountered widespread rejection, with neither the nor colleges showing interest in hiring him post-disclosure. Kopay attributed this to his , stating that "because of my I can't get a job as a coach," reflecting what he described as league-wide homophobia that stymied his career transition. Kopay's unsuccessful bids extended to multiple institutions, where he believed his visibility as the first out player led to an effective , eliminating prospects in despite his qualifications. This outcome forced him to exit the sport entirely, eventually joining his family's flooring business in to sustain employment. Contemporaries and later analyses corroborated his perception, noting that his "killed any chance of him coaching" within the industry. No formal documentation of explicit discriminatory policies exists from the era, but the pattern of denials aligned with the NFL's conservative culture in the , where was stigmatized and rarely addressed publicly. Kopay's experience contrasted with peers who transitioned to without similar barriers, underscoring the causal link he and observers drew between his announcement and professional exclusion. By the late , he had shifted focus away from , viewing the blacklisting as a direct repercussion of prioritizing over career viability in a homophobic .

Memoir Publication and Public Reception

Kopay's , The David Kopay Story: An Extraordinary Self-Revelation, co-authored with Perry Deane Young, was published by Arbor House in in . The book provided a detailed account of his career across five teams, his internal conflicts over during a time when was heavily stigmatized in , and the aftermath of his 1975 public . Arbor House promoted it aggressively through advertisements in gay publications such as The Advocate alongside mainstream book channels, leading to initial strong sales momentum within the gay community that later expanded to book clubs and general audiences. The achieved commercial success, securing a substantial advance commitment from for its 1978 paperback edition and appearing on bestseller lists, marking a as the first such work by an openly professional male athlete. Television appearances further boosted its visibility, with publisher I. highlighting its exploration of machismo, , and family dynamics as key draws. Critical and public reception proved mixed, with acclaim for its raw honesty in confronting stereotypes of gay men as effeminate or incompatible with athletic prowess, yet encountering resistance reflective of 1970s cultural norms that viewed open homosexuality—especially in hyper-masculine domains like the NFL—with suspicion or outright hostility. The work influenced broader perceptions of athletes' private lives akin to Jim Bouton's Ball Four in baseball, humanizing Kopay's experiences while underscoring persistent barriers to acceptance in sports.

Activism and Later Life

Advocacy Efforts and Public Debates

Following his public in 1975, Kopay testified before the in 1977 to advocate for gay rights. He continued these efforts by addressing the National Bar Association in 1979 and the in 1980 on the topic of and related rights. Kopay also participated in public media appearances, including discussions on The David Susskind Show and Tom Snyder's Tomorrow, where he addressed his experiences as a gay athlete. A prominent public debate occurred in 1977 when Kopay engaged with anti-gay activist in The New York Daily News under the headline "Do Homosexual Athletes Tarnish Sports' Image?" Bryant contended that acceptance of would undermine sports and societal norms, while Kopay defended the presence and visibility of gay athletes. This exchange highlighted tensions over in during a period of heightened cultural opposition to gay rights. In later years, Kopay served as an ambassador for the in 2006, administering the athletes' oath at events and participating in pride parades. He pledged $1 million to the University of Washington's Q Center in 2007 to support LGBTQ student initiatives and planned involvement in Seattle-area lesbian, , bisexual, and transgender programs. Kopay maintained speaking engagements, such as a 2010 lecture at on "Sports and ," emphasizing persistent barriers for athletes. By 2020, he voiced frustration over the NFL's slow advancement in LGBTQ visibility, attributing it to ingrained ignorance and insecurity within sports culture.

Ongoing Reflections and Health

Kopay has experienced chronic health issues stemming from his career, including a severely damaged right that prevents activities like or , as well as persistent . By age 76 in 2018, he reported struggles with cognitive memory, including uncertainty about the number of concussions sustained during play. In February 2021, at age 78, Kopay relocated to Pacifica Senior Living in , a facility providing support for seniors, reflecting age-related care needs amid his ongoing physical challenges. In later reflections, Kopay has expressed a sense of peace with his life choices, crediting his 1975 coming out with enabling authentic living despite earlier depression and suicidal ideation tied to concealing his sexuality. He has described the delay in active NFL players coming out—46 years until in 2021—as indicative of persistent barriers in professional football, reacting to Nassib's announcement with enthusiasm: "Oh, shit! That’s really big news. It’s fabulous. This is incredible." Kopay continues limited activism through advisory roles with organizations like (joined 2012) and BAMMER (joined 2017), emphasizing support for LGBTQ individuals in sports. As of 2024, he remains publicly active via , sharing content related to his experiences.

Legacy and Impact

Influence on LGBTQ Visibility in Sports

Kopay's disclosure of his homosexuality in a 1975 interview with The Washington Star represented the first public coming out by a former NFL player, thereby challenging the prevailing silence surrounding LGBTQ individuals in professional American football and elevating awareness of their presence in the sport. This announcement, occurring three years after his retirement from a nine-year career that included stints with five teams, verified earlier journalistic investigations into closeted gay athletes and dispelled some myths about their incompatibility with team sports' hyper-masculine culture. By attaching a public face to the issue, Kopay shifted discussions from anonymous speculation to concrete reality, influencing media coverage and prompting reflections among players, coaches, and executives on sexuality in the league. His visibility extended through his 1977 memoir The David Kopay Story, which detailed the internal conflicts of concealing one's orientation amid professional demands, inspiring closeted athletes to contemplate openness despite risks. Kopay is credited with laying groundwork for subsequent disclosures, as evidenced by the gradual emergence of other figures post-1975, including retired players like Roy Simmons (1992) and active ones like (2021), the first to come out while on an roster. Outsports ranks his as the most significant LGBTQ milestone in history, noting it encouraged a total of 16 players to publicly identify as gay or bisexual by late 2024, though most did so after retirement. Despite these advancements, Kopay's influence highlighted persistent barriers to broader visibility, with no active NFL player coming out until Nassib's announcement 46 years later and only sporadic cases thereafter, underscoring the league's entrenched reluctance compared to other sports. Kopay himself voiced frustration in 2020 over the minimal uptick, attributing it to lingering stigma and career repercussions akin to his own blacklisting from coaching roles. This tempered progress reflects how his trailblazing act normalized discussion but did not immediately dismantle institutional homophobia, as evidenced by the NFL's history of just 16 such disclosures over 105 years of operation.

Criticisms of Limited Progress and Personal Controversies

Kopay has repeatedly voiced frustration over the stalled advancement in LGBTQ visibility within professional sports, particularly the , where cultural barriers persist despite his trailblazing announcement. In a , he highlighted that nearly 45 years after his public disclosure, a disproportionately low number of athletes had come forward, attributing the stagnation to entrenched and among players and executives rather than overt malice. This sentiment echoed his earlier observations; in 2013, at age 70, Kopay told that major U.S. sports leagues showed minimal executive-level commitment to addressing homophobia, with acceptance lagging far behind broader societal shifts. Even following Carl Nassib's 2021 coming out as the first active player to do so—46 years after Kopay's revelation—no subsequent active players have publicly identified as , underscoring the limited ripple effect of early advocacy efforts. Critics of the pace have pointed to systemic factors, including the NFL's delayed institutional responses, such as Kopay's assessment that undertook negligible action on LGBTQ until an internal employee-driven initiative in 2020. Kopay himself has emphasized that openness from athletes is essential to dismantle , yet the persistence of locker-room homophobic and fear of has deterred others, as evidenced by studies documenting ongoing verbal in team sports environments. This critique aligns with broader analyses attributing slow change to the hyper-masculine ethos of , where Kopay's of post-retirement exclusion exemplified how individual often fails to catalyze structural without or league-backed . On a personal level, Kopay faced backlash in the 1990s for speculating about the of during interviews, suggesting possible amid rumors; Aikman, who has maintained he is heterosexual, publicly rejected the implications. Kopay later issued a formal , acknowledging the remarks as inappropriate and expressing regret for fueling speculation that strained his relations within sports circles. This incident drew criticism for resembling tactics, which Kopay had otherwise opposed, and highlighted tensions between his advocacy for transparency and the privacy boundaries of active players. Additionally, his conservative leanings on culture—such as disdain for "in-your-face" player behaviors—have occasionally distanced him from more progressive elements in LGBTQ activism, contributing to familial rifts, including estrangement from his younger brother over political differences.

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