After three years of residing publicly as his true self, Ryan “R.K.” Russell is able to share extra of his deeply private story.
Russell, who performed for the Dallas Cowboys and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, came out as bisexual in 2019. Though he was an NFL free agent on the time, his announcement nonetheless broke limitations given the shortage of overtly LGBTQ gamers within the “Big Four” skilled sports activities leagues, which additionally embody the NBA, the NHL and Major League Baseball.
The 30-year-old athlete displays on his journey towards reclaiming the narrative round his sexuality in his forthcoming autobiography, “The Yards Between Us: A Memoir of Life, Love and Football.” HuffPost caught a sneak peek on the cowl for the memoir, due out May 16, 2023, by way of ESPN’s Andscape Books.
Kwaku Alston for foureleven company/Andscape Books
“Coming out is just one moment,” Russell informed HuffPost. “Though it’s a big one, there was so much I had to go through to get there and so much more life to live afterward. I wanted to write a memoir specifically because writing has saved me time and time again through depression, grief, injury and heartache. … It’s a humbling experience to reflect on where you came from.”
He added: “In my three years since coming out, I haven’t seen the progress I was hoping for, and this felt like an opportunity for me to step up and make a change. The writing was a chance to work out unresolved trauma, celebrate my achievements, and fall in love with myself all over again, and I hope others can do the same as they read along.”
In addition to Russell’s skilled experiences, “The Yards Between Us” paperwork his childhood in Carrollton, Texas, in addition to his faculty years as a defensive lineman for Purdue University in Indiana. He additionally shares the grief he skilled after the lack of his greatest pal and Purdue teammate, Joseph Gilliam, who died of most cancers in 2018.
Rodin Eckenroth by way of Getty Images
And although Russell was applauded by followers and LGBTQ rights advocates after popping out, he has not performed a recreation for an NFL crew since opening up about his sexuality ― and he doesn’t shrink back from expressing that frustration in his guide.
“Frankly, as a bisexual Black man in America, playing football was the easy part,” he mentioned. “It’s getting up and enduring all the hate, misinformation, corruption and politics to get to the field that’s so intense.”
Still, “The Yards Between Us” is finally a hopeful narrative. These days, Russell is fortunately in a relationship with dancer Corey O’Brien, whose spectacular TikTok re-creations of iconic music movies have caught the attention of Justin Timberlake and the Spice Girls, amongst different stars.
He’s additionally optimistic about Carl Nassib, who grew to become the primary lively NFL participant to return out as homosexual in 2021. This week, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers signed Nassib to a one-year deal.
Looking forward, Russell hopes “The Yards Between Us” would be the first of many books and different inventive endeavors that may discover “love, Blackness, queerness, masculinity and human connection.”
“Inclusion is not only the message of my book but my life purpose,” Russell mentioned. “And it’s at the heart of everything I do.”
