Kerry rhodes gay

After a season away from the NFL, during which his former assistant alleged the two were in a relationship, Kerry Rhodes says he believes the gay rumors weren't the reason for his surprising unemployment—and he's not gay anyway.

In an interview with ESPN, Rhodes said "I don't believe I was blacklisted," and that he doesn't believe the NFL would authorize that to take place. Instead he cites money as the reason no one gave the 31-year-old safety a tryout after Week 1. As for the photos of him and his assistant, and that assistant's claims they were a couple?

"I emphatically said no once and that's all I need to say and people who know me know that's definitely not the case," Rhodes said. "To me I'm definitely not and I can't control but people think, so I move on."

Below, Drew Magary's story from September wondering why so many teams with awful secondaries weren't even giving Rhodes a look.

Lost in yesterday's important news was this "SUPER Planet EXCLUSIVE" from MediaTakeOut: Kerry Rhodes kissed a dude on the head. And not just any dude, but a dude who is said to be Rhodes's assistant, and gay. [Update: We've taken down MTO's photos. See record at the bottom.]

MTO ran photos of the two last week—sans kisses—which prompted Rhodes to reveal TMZ:

"Photos have been circulating of my former assistant and I that contain caused some rumors regarding my sexuality, and I wanted to address the situation."

Rhodes then says flatly, "I am not gay."

Rhodes explains: "The shots were taken during a past vacation in a casual environment with my entire business team."

Rhodes says when it comes to being supportive of gay professional athletes coming out, he's on Magic Johnson's team: "I know a lot of people are recently talking about athletes struggling to come out to their fans right now, and I support them, as well as aspire those individuals comfort."

(We pause here to call into interrogate the credibility of both outlets, n