Jeff Garcia: I'm Not Gay
Ex-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jeff Garcia has become the latest pro athlete to publicly declare his heterosexuality.
"I've heard the rumor myself that I'm gay," Garcia said in an interview with Matt Maiocco, 49ers beat writer for the Santa Rosa Democrat conducted the week of the 49ers' final game of the regular season. The story was published Wednesday (Feb. 4).
"That is not the case. I've had girlfriends in the past and I do want to be married some day. ... Somebody saying it obviously doesn't have any clue as to who I am as a person and, secondly, speaks from a sense of having jealousy for what I've been able to attain as a person and is trying to knock me. Well, they're not knocking me."
There has been much speculation as to Garcia’s sexual orientation since he became the team’s starting quarterback in 1999. Most of it centers on his mannerisms and voice, which have set off the gaydar of many a fan. Maiocco interviewed Garcia as part of a feature on longtime 49ers trainer Lindsy McLean, who came out publicly in the newspaper and in “ESPN The Magazine.” Garcia willingly discussed the gay rumors, Maiocco told Outsports.
"I don't know if it's how I speak or what it is about me that presents that sort of label, but I don't know how many times I have to be out in public with a girlfriend to stop that from being said," Garcia, 34, said.
"Just because an individual in his 30s hasn't found true love and, yes, there are opportunities to date but it also forces you to be more particular. In so many ways, you become more adamant about finding that right person and not allowing yourself to open up to just anybody.
Garcia said he has heard derogatory words, apparently of the homophobic variety, hurled at him in opposing stadiums, especially Oakland and Philadelphia. He also said the rumors have swirled around him since his days in the Canadian Football League.
Garcia appears to be at the forefront of a nascent trend of jocks saying they’re heterosexual. In 2000, boxer Lennox Lewis, who lives with his mother and has a poodle, told a London paper that he's not gay. In 2002, New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza held a press conference to deny that he’s gay, following a blind rumor in the New York Post. And in January, Cleveland Indians minor league pitcher Kazuhito Tadano said he’s not gay, despite his appearance in a gay porn film.
If any other athletes wish to publicly declare their heterosexuality, drop us a line at Outsports and we’ll make sure the world knows
Owens, Garcia and Gay
Terrell Owens implies that Jeff Garcia is gay. Garcia denies it and mentions that he has had girlfriends. The mainstream media is excited. I yawn.
I confess that the Owens-Garcia lover’s quarrel, as one friend jokingly dubbed it, leaves me underwhelmed. I don’t think Owens’ comments, while classless and ignorant, were all that heinous. And Garcia’s response is annoying.
Yet the dustup between the two former teammates has provided grist for a media mill lacking in much else to write about in the dog days of summer. A Google News search turns up 150 media sources that have run with the story, and ESPN devoted a segment to the issue, spinning it into a larger “homosexuals in the NFL angle.”
Owens, a wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles, started things off when his comments in the current issue of Playboy became public. In the article, he was asked whether he thought Garcia was gay. "Like my boy tells me: If it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, by golly, it is a rat."
He then followed up with general comments on having a gay teammate. "I probably wouldn't say anything right off the bat. I'd just see what everyone else has to say. I'd probably keep my distance and, hopefully, he would keep his. If it was a guy who was helping us win ball games, hey, I'd have no problem with it. He can do what he wants to do outside of my everyday life."
A day later he was furiously backspinning. "I didn't say that he was gay," Owens told reporters. "The conversation and the interview were loose. To my knowledge, I'm not sure if Jeff is gay or not. I've seen him out — he had a girlfriend when we were in San Fran. There's been a recent report that he has a girlfriend now. That was the extent of it. Everybody's going to make a big deal out of it. It wasn't like I came out and said 'Jeff was gay.' People asked me similar questions about Steve Young. Everybody is going to have their rumors."
Ex-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jeff Garcia has become the latest pro athlete to publicly declare his heterosexuality.
"I've heard the rumor myself that I'm gay," Garcia said in an interview with Matt Maiocco, 49ers beat writer for the Santa Rosa Democrat conducted the week of the 49ers' final game of the regular season. The story was published Wednesday (Feb. 4).
"That is not the case. I've had girlfriends in the past and I do want to be married some day. ... Somebody saying it obviously doesn't have any clue as to who I am as a person and, secondly, speaks from a sense of having jealousy for what I've been able to attain as a person and is trying to knock me. Well, they're not knocking me."
There has been much speculation as to Garcia’s sexual orientation since he became the team’s starting quarterback in 1999. Most of it centers on his mannerisms and voice, which have set off the gaydar of many a fan. Maiocco interviewed Garcia as part of a feature on longtime 49ers trainer Lindsy McLean, who came out publicly in the newspaper and in “ESPN The Magazine.” Garcia willingly discussed the gay rumors, Maiocco told Outsports.
"I don't know if it's how I speak or what it is about me that presents that sort of label, but I don't know how many times I have to be out in public with a girlfriend to stop that from being said," Garcia, 34, said.
"Just because an individual in his 30s hasn't found true love and, yes, there are opportunities to date but it also forces you to be more particular. In so many ways, you become more adamant about finding that right person and not allowing yourself to open up to just anybody.
Garcia said he has heard derogatory words, apparently of the homophobic variety, hurled at him in opposing stadiums, especially Oakland and Philadelphia. He also said the rumors have swirled around him since his days in the Canadian Football League.
Garcia appears to be at the forefront of a nascent trend of jocks saying they’re heterosexual. In 2000, boxer Lennox Lewis, who lives with his mother and has a poodle, told a London paper that he's not gay. In 2002, New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza held a press conference to deny that he’s gay, following a blind rumor in the New York Post. And in January, Cleveland Indians minor league pitcher Kazuhito Tadano said he’s not gay, despite his appearance in a gay porn film.
If any other athletes wish to publicly declare their heterosexuality, drop us a line at Outsports and we’ll make sure the world knows
Owens, Garcia and Gay
Terrell Owens implies that Jeff Garcia is gay. Garcia denies it and mentions that he has had girlfriends. The mainstream media is excited. I yawn.
I confess that the Owens-Garcia lover’s quarrel, as one friend jokingly dubbed it, leaves me underwhelmed. I don’t think Owens’ comments, while classless and ignorant, were all that heinous. And Garcia’s response is annoying.
Yet the dustup between the two former teammates has provided grist for a media mill lacking in much else to write about in the dog days of summer. A Google News search turns up 150 media sources that have run with the story, and ESPN devoted a segment to the issue, spinning it into a larger “homosexuals in the NFL angle.”
Owens, a wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles, started things off when his comments in the current issue of Playboy became public. In the article, he was asked whether he thought Garcia was gay. "Like my boy tells me: If it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, by golly, it is a rat."
He then followed up with general comments on having a gay teammate. "I probably wouldn't say anything right off the bat. I'd just see what everyone else has to say. I'd probably keep my distance and, hopefully, he would keep his. If it was a guy who was helping us win ball games, hey, I'd have no problem with it. He can do what he wants to do outside of my everyday life."
A day later he was furiously backspinning. "I didn't say that he was gay," Owens told reporters. "The conversation and the interview were loose. To my knowledge, I'm not sure if Jeff is gay or not. I've seen him out — he had a girlfriend when we were in San Fran. There's been a recent report that he has a girlfriend now. That was the extent of it. Everybody's going to make a big deal out of it. It wasn't like I came out and said 'Jeff was gay.' People asked me similar questions about Steve Young. Everybody is going to have their rumors."
