Former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant has attacked the NFL after their 2021 pride post resurfaced over social media.
The 30-second video, shared by the NFL in late June 2021, says: ‘Football is gay. Football is lesbian. Football is beautiful. Football is queer. Fotball is transgender. Football is for everyone.’
The four-year-old post also encourages followers to donate to the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization aimed at helping LGBTQ youth.
Now, at the start of pride month this year, the post has recirculated around social media and was noticed by Bryant – who had no hesitancy in underlining how unimpressed he was.
‘Football is gay Football is queer Football is transgender.. these are wild statements to make..excuse my silliness,’ he wrote on X.
‘I’m going to proudly tell my boys football is none of these things. I have nothing against Gays but this is far from right.’
Former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant has attacked the NFL’s 2021 pride post
Bryant pictured alongside Jay-Z at the rapper’s foundation dinner in Brooklyn in 2023
Football is gay
Football is queer
Football is transgender.. these are wild statements to make..excuse my silliness.I’m going to proudly tell my boys football is none of these things.
I have nothing against Gays but this is far from right https://t.co/0MqgzyjqtP
— Dez Bryant (@DezBryant) June 2, 2025
Bryant has three childen, two of which are boys. His comment inevitably came under scrutiny, with one fan saying that ‘gay people are persecuted while straight folk are not.’
The 36-year-old Bryant wrote back: ‘People in general are being persecuted daily.’
Another follower responded to Bryant and said: ‘You’re digging a deeper hole and making yourself sound ignorant bro.
‘It’s not forcing anything, they didn’t make a “GAY Commerical”, the commerical doesn’t JUST say gay things. Seems to me like YOUR focus is other places.’
‘I don’t have a problem with gays… I just stated my opinion,’ Bryant said back, while in another post to a now-deleted comment, spoke about gay players in the NFL.
‘It’s gay players in the NFL..but forcing it in people’s faces..especially children..can send the wrong message… Football is a real community, like the gay community,’ Bryant wrote.
‘Imagine telling gays they have to advocate for straight people..they probably would have a problem.’
Bryant then sent another message addressing the backlash he provoked, saying: ‘I hate social media at times because people post fake positive things all the time and get bothered whenever folks have a real conversation.
Bryant is best known for playing for the Cowboys for seven years, from 2010 until 2017
‘It should be a written rule saying you can’t have an opinion because people are sensitive and all social platforms should be used for marketing purposes only lol.. I bet the goofy fake woke people have the most skeletons in their closet.’
Bryant spent seven years with the Cowboys, from 2010 until 2017. In 2018, he tore his Achilles two days after signing with the New Orleans Saints.
In 2020, he signed with the Baltimore Ravens and made six appearances.
