Simmons on
Stern
Gay Ex-NFL Player Doesn't Hold Back
By Jim Buzinski
Outsports.com
Former NFL player Roy Simmons,
one of only three pro football players to publicly say
they’re gay, went on Howard Stern’s radio show on Sirius
satellite on Thursday and gave some football analysis you’ll
never hear on a network telecast.
Stern gave Simmons the names John Elway, Dan Marino and Joe
Montana and told him he’d have to play "kill, fuck, marry."
Simmons' choices, without elaborating, were: "Kill Elway.
Fuck Marino. Marry Montana." The choices were met with
approval by Stern and his sidekick Artie Lang, a big Giants
fan.
Simmons,
who works as a counselor in a Long Island halfway house, was
also asked if he would “do” either quarterback Joe Namath or
Phil Simms (his former teammate with the Giants). Namath,
Simmons said. Stern added that he would also do Namath if he
was gay.
Simmons, 49, is promoting his
new book, “Out of Bounds. Coming Out of Sexual
Abuse, Addiction, and My Life of Lies in the NFL Closet.” I
just got a review copy and on the first page Simmons talks
about “doing” a guy named Mike who had a Winnebago where he
“kept a shitload of crack balled up in a lump of wax paper
on the kitchenette counter.”
The book goes from there into
accounts of sex parties, gin and Quaalude binges, copious
amounts of cocaine, dressing in drag, and being a prostitute
for $15 to $20 a pop. It’s a sure thing Simmons won’t be
nominated for NFL Man of the Year.
“I guess I wasn’t really your average stoned-out crackhead,”
Simmons writes. “In fairness to myself, most crackheads
can’t say they ever played professional football. They can’t
say they played in a Super Bowl, can’t say they were ever
picked in an NFL draft or did battle with the Pittsburgh
Steelers’ defensive line in front of 75,000 screaming fans.
They can’t say they’ve been on national television, under
bright lights, playing tag with the big men, making huge
salaries and working out endorsement deals with
international sportswear companies. I had my up time.
The average crackhead knows nothing but down. I had
my up time and I chose to do nothing with it. I let it slip
away like I’d let of everything else in my life. My fiancée.
My child. My family. Myself.”
On Stern, Simmons estimated that each NFL team had “one or
two” gay players, though that’s just his guess. He
encouraged any gay NFL player to contact him and that he
would keep their confidence. Along with Simmons, only former
players Dave Kopay and Esera Tuaolo have come out as gay.
Simmons said that with the Giants he
had sex with a fellow player he would not name.
Simmons, an
offensive lineman with the New York Giants and Washington
Redskins from 1979-84, came out as gay on the Phil Donahue
show in 1992, then promptly disappeared. No more stories
would appear about Simmons for the next 11 years until the
New York Times
published an article where Simmons revealed that he
is HIV-positive; was raped by a neighbor when he was 11; was
in drug rehabilitation twice for drugs and alcohol and has
been sober since; once came close to jumping off the Golden
Gate Bridge and was homeless for a brief time.
Simmons told Stern he is now celibate, but I wish Stern had
asked him about
his appearance about a year ago on the “700
Club,” the religious network run by Pat Robertson, where he
said he had found the Lord, was baptized and referred to his
“former lifestyle.” "[My pastor and I] spoke on and learned
about homosexuality and the connotations and everything that
go along with it. It's really against God’s will," Simmons
said on the show.
"Thank God for Jesus, for Him dying for my sins. On a daily
basis, I can go to Him in prayer and just put it out there
and be honest about it," Simmons said. "Coming into the
fold, coming into the knowledge of God, just how wonderful
and great He is and powerful, and feeling the love of Jesus
– it’s a beautiful feeling."
I wrote Simmons’ manager and best friend Jimmy Hester last
year to see if Simmons was now claiming he is not gay and
that there’s something wrong with being homosexual. I never
got a reply. Simmons told Stern that while he once claimed
that being raped as an 11-year-old made him gay, he is
no longer asserting that, but is undergoing therapy and
is "still a work in progress."
Simmons,
who works as a counselor in a Long Island halfway house, was
also asked if he would “do” either quarterback Joe Namath or
Phil Simms (his former teammate with the Giants). Namath,
Simmons said. Stern added that he would also do Namath if he
was gay.