Colton Underwood is now talking about his days in the NFL as a closeted gay man and how hard it was for him to keep his sexuality hidden from his former NFL teammates. In a new interview, the season 23 star of “The Bachelor” revealed that he avoided showering with the rest of his team as he was scared of being “turned on.”
Talking to Alex Cooper on Wednesday’s edition of “Call Her Daddy” podcast, the 29-year-old confessed, “I wouldn’t shower after practice because I was afraid of getting turned on in the locker room or in the shower.” The reality star, who played in the NFL from 2014 until 2016, added, “I never really was attracted to anybody who I played with, so it’s sort of silly to even say that, but I wanted to avoid any chance of being outed so I would not shower with the rest of the team.”
“I would leave. I would change in a corner or in a stall,” Colton remembered. “There was just a lot of things that I sort of did differently than other players because I felt like I had to, because I didn’t want questions to start being asked.”
Colton told Alex that he had to stay “completely away” from his teammates. “I kept my eyes locked on eyes at all times. I played it very safe because I didn’t want to give anyone a reason to come at me,” so he said.
Colton Underwood, who came out as gay earlier this year, said he would hook up with men who he thought were “straight in their real life, too,” adding, “They were all pretty closeted themselves.”
“I don’t think there was any man that was going to be coming out to get me because they would be outing themselves as well,” he told host Alexandria Cooper. “It wasn’t like a ton of men. It was like a few, and they never had my real name… That’s sort of how scared and secretive it all was.”
These days, Underwood has started dating a political fundraiser named Jordan C. Brown.
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“It’s been healthier for sure, there’s been no hitches,” Underwood said of his new relationship on “Call Her Daddy.” “With women, I would always look for a way out or try to find an escape plan.
“I was planning everything out like, next step this, we need to be engaged by this week, we need to hopefully have kids by this year… That’s truly how my relationships [went].”
He added of the romance, “We’re having a good time. There’s no pressure.”
Underwood played defensive end at Illinois State and was signed by the San Diego Chargers as an undrafted free agent in 2014, and was on the practice squad of the Oakland Raiders and Philadelphia Eagles.
