Openly gay footballer to come out of retirement and join MLS

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Robbie Rogers is joining the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer in another step by openly gay athletes in professional sports.

He told The Associated Press his fears about returning to soccer were eased by the strong support he received from family, fans and players, including Galaxy star Landon Donovan. Now Rogers is ready to accept his role as the league's first openly gay player.

"I don't know what I was so afraid of," Rogers said Friday. "It's been such a positive experience for me. The one thing I've learned from all of this is being gay is not that big of a deal to people."

"People are just really growing and accepting and loving," he added. "Those other things are just not that important to them. I think as the younger get older and the generations come and go, I think times are just becoming more accepting."

The 26-year-old player had retired in February on the same day the former U.S. national team player publicly came out in a blog post.
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Ché Guayaba wrote:I'm not sure how the Galaxy fans will feel about the move because fan favorite Mike Magee went the other way. (To Chicago)

Besides the novelty of saying "hey, L.A. is gay friendly." (Los Angeles also had the first openly gay baseball player in Glenn Burke) I'm not sure it was a good trade. Robbie Rodgers isn't all that in my opinion. Although, now that I think about it, with golden balls modeling somewhere in Paris or wherever he is now, they could use another "creator." How that'll work out is anyone's guess though.

This signing also makes my favorite nicknames for the Galaxy go from "childish" to "inappropriate."

dena wrote:I still don't know why Rogers 'retired' because he came out.

Scuba Steve wrote:Oh, you should have let him know how you feel. I bet he would have changed his ways then.

Scuba Steve wrote:Do you usually say things you don't mean then?

Scuba Steve wrote:He wasn't going to be in Columbus when he came out. He retired because he lost the love for the game. Nothing wrong with that -- and nothing wrong with coming back. He lost the itch in England, easily understandable when you aren't playing, but rediscovered it when he came back home. I was happy for him Sunday night, just can't wait for the day when an openly gay athlete doesn't have to be celebrated as such.