Kansas State offensive tackle and NFL prospect Scott Frantz came out as gay in an interview with ESPN's Holly Rowe on Thursday. Watch it above.
Frantz divulged his sexual orientation to his teammates following his redshirt season in 2015. Wildcats coach Bill Snyder had brought in a motivational speaker who encouraged the players to reveal details about themselves that they had never told anyone else before.
“So the very first time I said those words were in front of, you know, 110, 120 football guys,” Frantz said. “So you can imagine how scared I was, how nervous I was. … This could go either really bad or could go really good. And thankfully my teammates embraced me with open arms, and it was great.”
Frantz said he has known he is gay since 5th grade but accepted it himself while in junior high school. Snyder said it wouldn't have mattered if he had known Frantz was gay before he was recruited.
Snyder told Rowe that, if Frantz had told him he was gay during the recruiting process, it wouldn't have affected his evaluation. Snyder also said he was confident that the Kansas State players would be accepting of Frantz.
“I was quite comfortable that they would be very receptive and that they would treat him as they always said,” Snyder told Rowe, “as, you know, his teammate and someone that they cared about. And they did.”
Frantz and My-King Johnson will be the first openly gay NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision players this fall.
