Retired Dallas Cowboys linebacker Jeff Rohrer came out as gay and announced that he’s getting married, according to the New York Times article that broke the news.
“If I had told the Dallas Cowboys in the 1980s that I was gay, I would have been cut immediately. It was a different world back then, people didn’t want to hear that,” Rohrer said. It was his football career that kept him from coming out for so many years. He played football in high school and at Yale University and was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys after college. He played for them from 1982 to 1989 and now works in media as a producer of television commercials.
Rohrer was previously married to a woman but the two got divorced a decade ago. He met his partner, Joshua Ross, a celebrity aesthetician and the founder of SkinLab, in May 2015 at a gay bar in West Hollywood. Ross and Rohrer live together in Los Angeles, California. When they get married, Rohrer will become the first former or current NFL player in a same-sex marriage.
“I feel like I’m 16,” Rohrer said in an interview with OutSports. “I feel revived. Like I’m born again. Again.”
Rohrer knows that the wedding news will surprise many people. He even told the Times that one guest sent back his invitations because he thought it was a joke.
The two will get married this coming Sunday, November 18, in front of 150 guests at Wattles Mansion Gardens in Los Angeles. The entire weekend leading up to the event is packed with celebration, including a Texas-style hoedown on Saturday.
Upon arrival at Sunday’s wedding, guests will receive a rose quartz stone (a symbol of love) and an amethyst stone (symbolizing friendship) to place their hopes for the couple during their vow exchange. Both Rohrer and Ross will wear matching blue tuxedos by Salvatore Ferragamo. Guests will be served a full raw bar, and enjoy a wedding cake by Sweet Lady Jane. The ceremony will be officiated by Rev. Jon Olson.
“For the most part, many of my closest friends, including some of my former teammates with the Cowboys, could not have been more happy and supportive,” Rohrer said to the Times.
