Out of Bounds: Coming Out of Sexual Abuse, Addiction, and My Life of Lies in the NFL Closet - Hardcover

Simmons, Roy; DiMarco, Damon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786716819 ISBN 13: 9780786716814

Publisher: Carroll & Graf, 2005

Synopsis

The second NFL player ever to come out as gay and the first ever to come out as HIV-positive, Roy Simmons was an up-and-coming star offensive lineman who quit football after just four years rather than be exposed as gay. Out of Bounds tells his compelling story-from his rape at age 10 to being plucked from his poor Southern background to join the NFL, from his first taste of pro football fame and sudden enormous wealth to his fast-paced, no holds barred nightlife of heavy drugs and countless sexual encounters with women and men. Simmons led a roller-coaster life that peaked in the late 1980s with his playing in the Superbowl. Ultimately, however, reckless living left him penniless, friendless, and on the brink of suicide. Finally in 1992, Simmons tapped the courage to come out as gay on national TV—then coming out as HIV-positive 10 years later—leading him to a healthy path of sobriety and self-acceptance.

About this title

About the Author:

Roy Simmons is only one of three former NFL players to publicly disclose his homosexuality. Simmons, an offensive lineman with the New York Giants and Washington Redskins from 1979-84, came out as gay on television in 1992. Simmons works as a supervisor in a Long Island drug halfway house.

Damon DiMarco is the author of Tower Stories: The Autobiography of September 11, 2001. He's currently on the faculty of Drew University and lives in New York.

From Publishers Weekly:

In 1992, on the Phil Donahue show, former NFL offensive lineman Roy Simmons let the world in on his secret: Simmons, a seven-year veteran of the NFL who had traded the gridiron for a crackpipe, was gay. Only the second NFL player to admit he was gay (a third, Esera Tuaolo, has since made the announcement), Simmons's confession shocked the sports world. But it is what led up to that show that proves even more shocking. In this gritty, unflinching memoir, Simmons recounts how keeping his sexuality tucked tightly under his football pads steered him into a clandestine life filled with sex, drugs, sex, lies and sex. Unlike recently celebrated and bestselling rehab memoirs, Simmons's story has no happy ending. Nor is there a happy beginning or happy middle. And be forewarned: Simmons pulls no punches in speaking directly (read: profanely) about his experiences-the sex is explicit and the drugs are rampant. Simmons has since become the only former NFL player to disclose that he is HIV positive, but his illness has done little to derail his self-destructive lifestyle. Even now, 13 years after that televised confession, he seems strangely proud of his exploits. This memoir may not be a must-own for the casual-or even avid-football fan, but it should be required reading for every nascent professional athlete-as a manual of what not to do.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Carroll & Graf
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0786716819
• ISBN 13: 9780786716814
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 260