Brad Thorson and Danny Kaye were football teammates at the University of Wisconsin, both playing on the Badgers' offensive line during the 2006 and 2007 seasons. They spent countless hours together, on and off the field.
Thorson also befriended Kaye's family during after-game get-togethers.
Thorson, now 26 and living in San Francisco, revealed in early July that he is gay.
Kaye reached out to Thorson in support of his former teammate. So too did Kaye's wife, his dad and mother-in-law.
"It so was powerful that all of them felt strongly enough to reach out," Thorson said.
Kaye is one of countless longtime friends and teammates of the former football player who have contacted Thorson in the days after he came—just to show their support. It's a long list of teammates who Thorson admitted, "I feel I wasn't grateful enough when I played with them, seeing what character they have now."
Thorson's coming-out hasn't changed their view of the teammate who wore uniform No. 76.
Thorson was at Wisconsin for the 2006 and 2007 season, a red-shirt freshman in '06. He then transferred to the University of Kansas for the next three seasons.
Thorson never considered coming out while active, mostly because, "I didn't really understand who I was. I knew I was different, but I didn't really know in what capacity, and I found other things to fill my time."
Since writing July 4 on his blog two simple, yet difficult-to-write words—I'm gay—Thorson has had nothing but support.
"I said ['I'm gay'] plenty of times before [writing in on my blog], but when you put something in writing, it's pretty permanent—and it was a powerful statement for me to write and be comfortable with," Thorson said. "It gets easier and easier each time I say it, and I've really drawn confidence in that statement.
"That probably was the most frightening line that I wrote because it's the declarative statement. Ultimately, putting it as plain as day was the best way to let people know. I had a ton of nervous energy before [posting] it, but I knew I truly could be myself once it was out there."
Thorson added: "I'm really happy to see where the [overall general sports] locker room is at. I think players know that they've played with gay teammates before. We've played with teammates who have all sorts of backgrounds—and we accept them because they are our teammates. I'm happy that there are bastions, for lack of a better word, who are changing the perception for the fans, for the front-office, for everyone. They are helping teammates who grew up in an area that wasn't as progressive, so they understand that there isn't a stereotype for gay anymore. [Being gay] really has nothing to do with a person's personality or the way they behave.
"It's encouraging that the athletes have moved beyond the fears [of having a gay teammates.] I never could have imagined the support I've received from my teammates; it's been unbelievable."
Thorson, who grew up in Milwaukee, has lived in Kansas City and Denver before landing in San Francisco as a manager of publisher relations for an ad tech startup, where he has worked since the spring.
He is single—and the latest high-profile sports star to come out to nothing by favorable reactions, which he wasn't expecting.
So why come out now, several years after hanging up the pads?
First, he has switched to rugby and playing for a gay team, the San Francisco Fog, and will be participating in the prestigious Bingham Cup, a predominantly-gay rugby tournament, set for August 24-31 in Sydney, Australia.
"I had gotten comfortable with the people I had told in my life and kept hearing, 'Why aren't you sharing your story?' and, 'What took you so long [to come out]?'" Thorson said. "All of those questions revolved around me saying, 'It took me a long time to find people who I could relate to, and not until I found people who I could relate to, and see that I wasn't different that I felt confident I could say that I was a gay athlete.
"The Fog had a large part to play in my coming-out; it was really instrumental in me seeing that both gay and straight athletes playing together without a problem. Playing with the Fog, I saw that someone's sexual orientation does not matter on the field; what matter is, can you play."
Thorson also saw other athletes who have, or are, going through similar situations.
"It gets easier the more people that, as you look around, and say, he or she is just like me—and I don't need to worry about what other people think," he said. "Plus, I've got to the point with my own maturity where, I built up ready to handle any negative backlash, which fortunately there's been absolutely zero of, which makes me feel like I could have done this sooner. But we all come to our own [coming-out] at our own time.
"I feel bad for expecting this, but, I expected not to hear from a lot of [former football] teammates, which was a poor presumption on my part, but, if anyone has come out in higher numbers, it is my former [football] teammates. Guys from Wisconsin who I haven't talked to in three or four years have been calling me and reminding me of times we spent together on and off the field, and that they still consider me a great teammate and a brother."
Teammates from Kansas also have contacted Thorson, many telling him "how I may have inspired them, and that they were so happy that they the ability to play next to me," he said.
"Those [teammate] messages are really powerful, and say a lot about [the sports'] culture that is viewed as being not that tolerant and progressive," he said.
Thorson was drawn to rugby by its physical nature, and his sister also played the sport.
He didn't share his football past with his Fog teammates at first.
But those Fog teammates now know, and "they've really grown into a family for me," Thorson said.
They've learned of the former football player who was on the field in 2010 when Kansas upset then-15th-ranked Georgia Tech, 28-25, and also when the Jayhawks that season defeated Colorado, 52-45.
"This [coming-out] experience has taught me the relationships that I built and the friendships that I made are the greatest part about football for me," Thorson said.
