let me tell you this, when kwame harris played pro football, no one in the locker room doubted he was straight. but he wasn t. and he kept that secret during his pro career. former teammate coy wire talked to him about the pressure he was under to keep quiet. kwame harris was always a standout football player, from high school to stanford university to first round pick in the 2003 draft. he played six seasons in the pros, five with the san francisco 49ers, and one with the oakland raiders. i love football. football provided me with some experiences and some opportunities that i wouldn t trade for anything else. but at the same time, the cost was great in asking me to not speak candidly or be able to be open about myself and in this complete manner. reporter: harris is gay. he said he s always known this, but concealed it until recently. i wasn t publicly out until until about, i don t
harris, recently outed in the media the nfl is not necessarily known for its acceptance of gays. not one player in the nfl is openly gay. good to see you. good to see you too. you played with kwame at stanford. i did. he revealed to you in a personal way why he decided now was the time to reveal he is gay, not while he was an active nfl player, but as a former player. the thing about this, kwame is he s such an impressive guy. not only one of the best football players at stanford, but playing masterpieces on the piano, on the violin. none of us knew for certain he was gay. he would could have assumed as much, but we didn t really care. i went back to the college field where we played football together and learned about the fear and mental torment that kwame experienced when he was
not only is that not unique, but those feelings are are common feelings. those feel incredibly alone in having those questions. secondly, i m gay, i m a former athlete and i think i m a pretty normal guy. wow. very candid, very revealing conversation with kwame harris and you. you know, you revealed he didn t ever consider coming out while he was playing, but now he s reflecting on it. is he kind of exhibiting almost how instrumental or instructive it might have been, had he come out while he was an active player? i think so. this process cathartic for him. he wished that he were able to come out while he was playing, that he had the fortitude, the grace, the strength to be able to do that. the thing he wanted to get across is any gay athlete who is out there, even the youth, especially the youth, he wanted them to know, look, you are not alone, the feelings of pressure, strain, torment, completely
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or find the fortitude or the grace to kind of make the hard decision. reporter: the lost closet is an organization to encourage the end of homophobia in sports. jackie robinson when he came into baseball, he had trouble, but it was the management that took care of him and made it okay. reporter: yakker points out for many players, it is a nonissue. we re going to support him, and we re going to treat him like we treat everybody else, every other teammate with love and fairness and kindness and compassion because we know it is really going to be a tough burden on that person. reporter: for harris, the burden almost became too much to bear. you want to escape the stare, the turmoil and your mind goes to dark places sometimes. but i would just say that i i m happy today. i m glad that, you know, i didn t actually i didn t act on any of those things and that, you know, it does get better.