Gay In The NFL } Wade Davis on Being Gay

Wade Davis played football for the Tennessee Titans, Seattle Seahawks and Washington Redskins from 2000-04, but during his NFL career, he was keeping a very big secret.

Davis, 34, came out of the closet last year -- well after his playing career. He was afraid to come out to his teammates and explained to OutSports that he even dropped $1,500 at a strip club just so people would think he was straight.

"You just want to be one of the guys, and you don't want to lose that sense of family," Davis told OutSports. "Your biggest fear is that you'll lose that camaraderie and family. I think about how close I was with [Titans teammates] Jevon [Kearse] and Samari [Rolle]. It's not like they'd like me less, it's that they have to protect their own brand."

The former defensive back who now serves as assistant director of job readiness at Hetrick-Martin Institute, sat down with SB Nation's Amy K. Nelson on Tuesday to explain the difficulties he faced being a closet homosexual in the NFL.