Thursday, August 14, 2014

Arizona State Football Player Chip Sarafin comes out as Gay



Very interesting news here.

Edward "Chip" Sarafin, who's a senior offensive lineman for Arizona State University, has come out as gay. I believe Chip is the only out player in major college football.

Here's more on the story:
Sarafin told his story to Phoenix-based Compete magazine, a publication for gay sports. The article by Joshua Wyrick focused on Sarafin's educational studies in biomedical engineering with his goal of becoming a neurologist and on his volunteer work. The part of Sarafin being gay is addressed in an oh-my-the-way manner near the end.

He came out to his Sun Devils teammates last spring, saying, "it was really personal for me and it benefited my peace of mind greatly."

Sarafin is a fifth-year senior and the school's media guide indicates he did not play in a game his first two seasons and was on special teams last year, though there is no mention of him having played in a game. He stands 6-6 and weighs 320 pounds.

There have been other major college football players who have been openly gay on their teams -- Michael Sam was one at Missouri last year -- but Sarafin would be the first gay player to tell his story to the media while still playing.
I hope he's had a good experience in Arizona.

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Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.