The David Kopay Story: An Extraordinary Self-Revelation

You don't need to be a gay man or a football fan to connect with this emotional and enlightening page-turner. Bravo to David Kopay and Perre Deane Young!!!!!!

This book is of a true hero, David Kopay. What a story of courage and inspiration. If you want to be inspired, read this book. One of the best!!

This is David Kopay's account of growing up gay back when there were very few books or support groups to turn to, which makes it stand even taller. He describes his experience as a college and professional football player as well as being in a fraternity. I find him candid, readable and likeable. He never asked for any special favours, just the right to live his life his way and do what he knew how to do.I'm proud that David is a fellow Husky; his name adds honour to the reputation of the University of Washington, both as a hard-nosed athlete who hit like a freight train and as a man of courage. Just about anyone could benefit from reading his book.

Inevitably somewhat dated, this book (first published in 1977, but revised a bit since) is nonetheless still on the short list of must-reads for both gay people and for heterosexuals who want to know more about gay people and what we go through. Kopay was hugely courageous to come out when he did, on the scale he did, and as a former NFLer no less! Kopay's autobiography (it's not "a novel," as the review before mine says) busts all sorts of stereotypes, but his story is really quite similar to those of many gay men who have never fit the stereotypes in the first place. Kopay was so ahead of his time that I don't think any professional football player has come out since him (Jerry Smith, who died of AIDS, is described in the book, and was a buddy of Kopay's, never really came out).

After reading this incredible novel, I was surprised that David Kopay remains obscure to most people. An NFL football player of ten years, David Kopay decides to unmask himself and come out of the closet in the Washington Star newspaper. What happens then is a series of trials for him, in the very gay-oppressed 1970s. He meets such huge figures of history, such as Jimmy Carter, Congressman Gerry Studds, and the slain mayor and office holder of San Francisco, Harvey Milk and George Moscone. Throughout his unfolding, relevational story, he denounces the religious right, and the hate that Christianity brings to other fellow human beings. Kopay finds that the only way to be true to oneself, is to simply tell the truth. He does so, and the whole world comes to face him. Being in the National Football League (the NFL) is all the much harder, since professional football in America has become the epitome of masculinity and machismo, and gay men are supposed to not exist within this world. Kopay proves the stereotypes wrong, and tells personal stories of other gay men within the football world, including a fellow NFL player who dies of AIDS, Jerry Smith. This book is an integral story for everyone alive, for through Kopay, we can see a mirror of ourselves.