drug culture, was injured in a knife fight and became homeless at one point. Personal life In 1992, he announced that he was gay on The Phil Donahue Show. Around 1997, he learned that he was HIV-positive. In 2006, three days before the Super Bowl, Simmons requested a media credential and two tickets to the game. The NFL denied his request, saying that it had received too many similar requests to accommodate all of them. Simmons and attorney Gloria Allred wrote to the NFL and requested an investigation into whether his request had been denied due to his sexuality or his HIV status. His autobiography, Out of Bounds, was published that year. According to Simmons' brother Gary, the former NFL player lived alone and spent several stints in drug treatment after his playing career. Simmons was a born-again Christian, and a Christian Broadcasting Network video profile intimated that Simmons came to see homosexuality as immoral, but Simmons' brother said that Simmons was always proud to identify as a gay black man. Simmons died February 20, 2014, in his Bronx, New York apartment at the age of 57. In 2015, he was inducted into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame. In an interview in 2019, former NBA player Al Harrington revealed that Simmons was his cousin, and that as a child his goal was to grow up and play for the New York Giants just like his older cousin Roy. See also Homosexuality in American football References 1956 births 2014 deaths African-American Christians African-American players of American football American football offensive guards Gay sportsmen LGBT players of American football Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football players LGBT African Americans LGBT people from Georgia (U.S. state) LGBT Protestants New York Giants players People with HIV/AIDS Players of American football from Savannah, Georgia Washington Redskins players AIDS-related deaths in New York (state) 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American people American LGBT sportspeople