Ex-NFLer Fred Smoot: I encountered 'several' gay players, 'everyone knew'

In December, former St. Louis Rams defensive end Michael Sam revealed that he received phone calls after being drafted from a number of the NFL's gay players, who told him they wished they had the courage to come out too.

Fred Smoot, who played in the league from 2001 to 2009, offered a different perspective on the subject Monday during a Reddit AMA ("Ask me anything").

Here's the exchange:

Q: Did you encounter any gay players?

A: yes. several.

Q: At the professional level? Was it a don't ask don't tell kind of thing, or did everybody on the team generally know?

A: everyone knew

Q: (Were) they treated noticeably different? Or did nobody really care?

A: no one cares

Hall-of-Famer Deion Sanders, whose 14-year NFL career included stops in Atlanta, San Francisco, Dallas, Washington, and Baltimore, gave a similar response in 2014, noting that there was a gay player on every team he suited up for, and that he and others "always knew."

Smoot's AMA elicited some hilarious responses and is worth reading in its entirety.