Plenty of others have tried, but the New York Times’ Sam Borden was among the first to get Robbie Rogers to talk about the February bombshell he dropped on soccer and on the larger American sports scene.
Back on Feb. 15, Rogers announced that he was gay. And he retired. Since then, the former Columbus Crew and U.S. international winger has been something of a media recluse.
Rogers has been, however, fairly active on social media. His Twitter followers (95,000 and change now) got an early tip that he was doing a pair of interviews this week, one with Borden and one with The Guardian UK.
Obviously, the primary topics were his process of coming out, the mile makers that led to the tell-tale post back in mid-February. Rogers said he wrote the words in December and then labored over whether to share them with the world. Finally, his closest friends grew weary of hearing him talk about it. They told him, according to Rogers, to post the doggone thing or shut up about it already.
(MORE: American soccer demonstrates tremendous overwhelming, inspiring support for Rogers)
Borden’s story in today’s New York Times is a great read, definitely worth one of your free articles allowed each month by the newspaper. You’ll learn that …
- If Rogers returns to soccer, it will almost certainly be in MLS.
- Even though he thinks MLS would be the best place to resume a career, there are still some silly, silly men in those locker rooms.
- Rogers seems to have kept a sense of humor about things.
- Sacha Kljestan is a really, really good dude, the kind of friend everyone should have.
- He barely celebrated after Columbus won MLS Cup in 2008.
- He never told a soul about being gay until last summer; and then it was some random girl at a bar.
On the subject of returning to soccer, Rogers is fairly non-committal. First, according to Borden’s story, he will finish a program at London College of Fashion, and then incorporate his schooling into the clothing line of which he co-owner, Halsey. From today’s NYT story:
I’m definitely not closing any doors. Maybe I will go back. Right now, I’m just happy to be out and being honest with people. But just because I’m out doesn’t mean I’m 100 percent healthy. It’s been 25 years that I haven’t been myself. Twenty-five years of lying. That’s really, really hard.”
