Lombardi instilled, valued inclusivity in a time of widespread exclusion

Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s recent remarks on abortion, gender roles and the upcoming celebration of Pride Month were a reminder that sports inevitably reflect the controversies and complexities of the society around them.

It’s true today and it was true 55 years ago, when legendary NFL coach Vince Lombardi quietly but firmly made it clear to his Washington Redskins staff that he didn’t care about players’ sexuality.

Lombardi knew running back Ray McDonald was gay during his lone 1969 offseason with the Redskins, as the Commanders were known then. But the Hall of Fame coach saw a player who could help the team on the field.

“I want you to get on McDonald and work on him and work on him,” Lombardi told an assistant coach, according to the biography “When Pride Still Mattered” by David Maraniss. “And if I hear one of you people make reference to his manhood, you’ll be out of here before your ass hits the ground.”

There were no openly gay players in the NFL in 2023. None are expected to participate in this year’s training camps, either. But in 1969, Lombardi brought in three gay athletes to the Redskins’ training camp, according to Maraniss and others who chronicled the coach’s life — including Lombardi himself.

The hard-nosed, trench-coat-wearing coach of the Green Bay Packers and Redskins demanded excellence on the field, pushing players to exhaustion during infamously grueling practices. Off the field, he preached tolerance and acceptance.

In his one season in Washington, Lombardi mentored three gay players and worked alongside two gay executives in the front office. Former players say the legendary coach never discussed their sexualities outright, but he knew. 

When he arrived in the District in 1969, Lombardi called tight end Jerry Smith into his office. The coach told the closeted gay player that sexuality didn’t matter — athletes would be judged only on their work on the field, according to Lombardi’s biography.

“Every important thing a man searches for in his life, I found in Coach Lombardi,” Smith said on his deathbed, as reported by Sports Illustrated. “He made us men.”

In Green Bay, Lombardi barred his team from patronizing segregated restaurants. In Washington, he embraced gay players such as Smith and running back Dave Kopay. 

“My father was way ahead of his time,” Susan Lombardi told ESPN in 2013 after Jason Collins became the first openly gay player in the NBA. “He was discriminated against as a dark-skinned Italian-American … He felt the pain of discrimination, and so he raised his family to accept everybody, no matter what color they were or whatever their sexual orientation was.”

Like Butker, Lombardi was a strict Catholic, but the coach’s faith was informed by his acceptance of Harold Lombardi, his gay brother.

“His faith was also a major part of his life and something that was reflected in the way he dealt with his players … ” Vince Lombardi Jr. told ESPN. “I think my father would’ve felt, ’I hope I’ve created an atmosphere in the locker room where this would not be an issue … my locker room will tolerate nothing but acceptance.’”