Overview

Growing up in a red-state corner of California, the not-so-subtle messages he heard as a young man routinely equated being gay with disease and death. Letting people in on the darkest secret he kept buried inside was not an option, and it never would be. Ryan never envisioned just how far his football career would take him. He was recruited by the University of California, Berkeley. Then it was on to the NFL for stints with the New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs. Bubbling under the surface of Ryan's entire NFL career was a collision course between his secret sexuality and his hidden drug use. As injuries mounted and his daily intake of opioids reached a near-lethal level, he wrote his suicide note to his parents and plotted his death. Yet someone had been watching. A member of the Chiefs organization stepped in, recognizing the signs of drug addiction. Ryan reluctantly sought psychological help, and it was there that he revealed his lifelong secret for the very first time. Nearing the twilight of his career, Ryan faced the ultimate decision: end it all, or find out if his family and football friends could ever accept a gay man in their lives.

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9781665207096

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Ryan O'Callaghan played right tackle in the NFL for six seasons, with the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs. Before he was drafted by the Patriots in 2006, he played for the University of California Golden Bears, where he helped the team win two bowl games and was named the 2005 Morris Trophy winner as the Pac-10's best offensive lineman. O'Callaghan is the creator of a foundation designed to provide scholarships for out LGBTQ athletes. He currently lives in his hometown of Redding, California. Cyd Zeigler is the cofounder and coeditor of Outsports.com, the world's most renowned publication dealing with LGBTQ issues in sports. One of the world's leading experts on the intersection of sexuality and sports, Zeigler has been tapped to discuss the issue by CNN, ESPN, the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, and many others. He has worked with countless athletes to tell their coming-out stories, including professional athletes Michael Sam, John Amaechi, and Ryan O'Callaghan. He is also the author of Fair Play: How LGBT Athletes Are Claiming Their Rightful Place in Sports. A graduate of Stanford University, Zeigler now lives in Los Angeles with his husband and two cats. Graham Halstead, an Earphones Award and Audie Award-winning narrator, is a professionally trained actor and voice artist. As an actor, he has worked internationally in Edinburgh and London, as well as at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. His youthful, easy-flowing voice can be heard on television and radio voicing spots for Airborne and Allegra.

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