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The Biggest Play of His Life
Posted: Tuesday May 02, 2000 06:11 PM
Join Rick Reilly for a special chat on Monday, May 8 at 2 p.m. ET. Click here to submit a question for Reilly before the chat.
One of the captains of the high school football team had something big he wanted to tell the other players. "I was so anxious," remembers middle linebacker Corey Johnson, a senior at Masconomet High in Topsfield, Mass., "I thought I was going to vomit." He took a hard gulp. "I want to let all of you guys know something about me." He tried not to let his voice quake. "I'm coming out as an openly gay student here." His teammates' eyes and mouths went wide as soup plates. "I hope this won't change anything," Corey quickly went on. "I didn't come on to you last year in the locker room, and I won't this year. I didn't touch you last year in the locker room, and I won't this year." Awkward silence. "Besides, who says you guys are good enough anyway?" And you know what happened? They laughed! But that's not the best part. The best part is what happened next. Nothing. Corey's teammates had no problem with his sexual orientation. His coach had no problem with it. His mom and dad and his sister had no problem with it. His teachers, his counselor -- nobody -- had a problem with it. O.K., somebody scrawled FOOTBALL FAG on a door at school. True, one cementhead parent asked coach Jim Pugh to have the team take a new vote on the captaincy, but Pugh told him to stuff it. And, yeah, one week the opposing team's captain kept hollering, "Get the fag!" but his coach finally benched him (and Masconomet fricasseed that team 25-0). No opponent refused to play against Corey. No opposing coach said, "Boys, the Lord wants you to go out and crush that heathen!" Nobody held up a sign at a Masconomet game that read WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON, COREY? Nope. Corey Johnson, guard-linebacker, wrestler, lacrosse player, just went out and played his senior football season, same as ever. Masconomet did well (7-4 for the season, 25-8 with Corey, a two-way starter for three years). Now Corey is getting on with his life, hopeful as ever. He'll graduate with his class next month, think about playing small-college football and become a gay activist, a journey that began on Sunday at the Millennium March on Washington for Equality. Can't wait for Corey to be on a gay parade float when some beer-bellied yahoo hollers, "Hey, girls! Shoe sale next corner!" The football captain might turn the poor schmo into a smudge mark. Corey can take the hits now, but hiding the truth about himself was so depressing in his sophomore and junior years that he let his grades drop, skipped practice and even skipped school. When an adult friend started ripping homosexuals at a Super Bowl party in January 1998, Corey couldn't decide whether to punch him or cry. He knew he had to do something. First, he told a guidance counselor he was gay and then a few teachers. They all supported him. A year later he told his parents. Fine. Then his best friend, Sean. Uh-oh. Big problem. Sean started crying. Corey asked him what was wrong. "I'm sorry you couldn't share this with me before," Sean said. They're still best friends. Since coming out, Corey says, he has heard from "hundreds" on the Internet, including athletes who wish they had the guts to come out too. "But," says Corey, "they always say, 'At my school? No way. It'd be impossible.'" At Masconomet, a public school with an enrollment of 1,300, Corey is the football captain who had even more moral courage than physical. He's admired by his teammates. In fact, nothing much changed between them, except on bus rides home after wins, when the whole team sang YMCA together. Well, it isn't Hunker Down, You Hairy Bulldogs, but it works. Maybe we're actually getting somewhere in the U.S. A young man who leads young men comes out as gay, and it makes such a ruckus you can still hear the crickets chirp. In fact, last month the Boston Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network handed its Visionary Award not just to Corey, but also to his teammates. Can you imagine that? A high school football team getting an award for tolerance? When I was growing up, my best friend was a hilarious kid I'll call Danny. Along about high school, he stopped coming around. Then, in college, he showed up in the Gay Club photo in the yearbook. After that, Danny didn't take my calls. It's a lousy feeling. I guess I'm not the kind of person he could've shared that with. Issue date: May 8, 2000
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