The online NCAA football betting offseason is a time for preparation as sportsbook fans learn about the latest recruits and signings that change the landscape of the title picture. But the latest college football news will invoke contemplation in players as they prepare to make next year’s season an even greater success than 2016’s
My-King Johnson, a 6’ 4” 225 lb. recruit out of Tempe High school in Arizona, is set to become the first active openly gay football scholarship player to play in major college football. Sportsbook players have seen a handful of athletes who have come out gay in Division II, III, and as well as NAIA, but Johnson will mark the first athlete who was recruited as an openly gay football player.
Chip Safarin, who was a walk on at Arizona State, never got to play. And Michael Sam, whose draft day video irked homophobic fans across the nation, had announced his sexual orientation to his teammates, but didn’t formally publicize his homosexuality until after his online NCAA football betting career.
The University of Arizona is more than happy to sign Johnson, who is a top-recruit by any measure of the word. In fact, 247sports has Johnson listed as the 53rd best defensive end in the country. In his senior season, the emerging Johnson recorded 21 ½ sacks as well as three forced fumbles that further illustrates his talents on the gridiron, and earned him All-Arizona honors.
Johnson, who has been openly gay since the age of 12, says that Arizona’s coaching staff is more than embracing of his choice. And their open-mindedness ended up landing them this college football betting top-recruit, since Johnson had previously verbally committed to UCLA before changing his mind and signing with the Wildcats.
“When I found out, I really couldn’t sleep,” Vincent Amey, Arizona’s defensive line coach who Johnson informed of his sexual orientation during recruitment, told the Daily Star. “And it wasn’t like I was uncomfortable with it. I was just like, all right, it’s different, it’s new…I said, ‘Look, you are who you are, I am who I am, and I’m going to coach you the same way. I’m going to treat you the same way. I’m going to get on you the same way as everybody else. There’s no difference. You do what you do.’
“When the players find out, especially in my room, I’m going to tell [those] dudes: Look, you gotta have his back.”
In such a divisive time in our country’s history, Amey’s comments are refreshing to say the least. To say that having a gay football player is new would be, as most sportsbook players know, a vast understatement. In fact, back when Amey played football in college and the NFL, it was considered heresy for a player to come out as gay. Little by little that has changed, and when Johnson steps on to the gridiron this upcoming fall, he’ll be making online NCAA football betting history.
