Gay coach

Kevin Maxen is an assistant ability and conditioning coach for the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars. He became the first openly gay male coach in any of the major US professional sports when he came out publicly in July 2023. Here, he shares in his own words how he came to that ruling, the challenges that come with existence openly gay in a sport prefer football, and his hopes for Diverse people in sports in the future.

I WAS KIND of on the fence about playing football, honestly. But in high academy, a lot of my friends from my hometown were trying out for the team so me and my twin brother decided to, too. That first year of high school football was iffy—I was always more of a baseball fan and player, and there were times I just didn’t want to proceed to practice. But then I had some decent accomplishment, and by my junior year the plan was to go to Endicott College to participate football.

Two weeks in, I broke my thumb. I couldn’t play. I couldn’t do anything. On top of that, I was a creative writing major, which made it hard to find any distributed interests with the guys on the team. I ended up leaving in November and went bac