Jaguars Strength Coach Kevin Maxen Announces He's Gay; 1st Openly Gay Male NFL Coach

Kevin Maxen, an associate strength coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars, publicly came out as gay Thursday in an interview with Cyd Zeigler of Outsports.

Maxen, who has worked in the NFL since February 2021, is believed to be the first openly gay male coach in major American men's professional sports in the United States, per Ziegler, and was ready finally ready to share his story.

"I don't want to feel like I have to think about it anymore," Maxen said. "I don't want to feel like I have to lie about who I am seeing, or why I am living with someone else.

"I want to be vocal in support of people living how they want to live, but I also want to just live and not feel fear about how people will react."

Prior to joining the Jaguars, Maxen had a long history of success working in the collegiate ranks, first as an intern at Iowa before moving on to Baylor and Vanderbilt. He has already started to build a strong reputation in the pros.

Brandon Linder, who played with the Jaguars for his final NFL season in 2021, spoke highly of the strength coach. He was also one of the first people in the NFL who Maxen opened up to about his sexuality and Linder immediately showed him the support he needed.

"Kevin was a big part in helping me prepare every Sunday during my last year in the NFL," Linder said. "He would write workouts for me with exercises that would help with my deficiencies, which helped me be the best version of myself on that field. Our friendship grew with the time spent working together and us sharing a lot of similarities on our views of life, being someone that just gets it."

"It was truly an honor and extremely humbling when I was one of the first people Kevin confided to about his sexuality. I can't imagine how hard that must have been, not knowing what my reaction would be. I remember the day he told me I was so elated for him to get that off his chest."

As part of his coming out process, Maxen reached out to Carl Nassib, who just a few years ago became the first active NFL player to come out as gay. Nassib put him in contact with Outsports to share his story.

One of the big motivations for him coming out was seeing people in the Jaguars organization introducing and sharing their families at different events while he remained silent about his relationship with his boyfriend Max of two-and-a-half years.

"You have other coaches who have significant others, and they're talking about their significant others," Maxen said. "And I felt guilty that I couldn't do the same thing, that I was letting myself down.

"I want the person I'm with to be able to share that with me."

While Maxen is the first openly gay male coach in the NFL, Katie Sowers was the first openly gay coach in the league. She came out in 2017 while working for the San Francisco 49ers.