Robbie Rogers Recalls The Very First Person He Came Out To, Says It's Weird Other Athletes Haven't Followed Suit

Well before he came out to his friends and family, L.A. Galaxy player Robbie Rogers first opened up about his sexuality to a random woman he met at a bar in London.

"I had been thinking about it a lot," Rogers, 27, recalled in a HuffPost Live appearance this week to promote his new memoir, Coming Out to Play. "I just was so sick of lying and wanted to get the ball moving."

Although he told his family a month later, Rogers said the initial coming out "felt so amazing, and I'm sure [the woman] didn't realize it."

Last year, the U.S. soccer player came out in a poignant blog post on his personal website.

"Secrets can cause so much internal damage," he wrote at the time. "People love to preach about honesty, how honesty is so plain and simple. Try explaining to your loved ones after 25 years you are gay."

Now, the MLS star told HuffPost Live's Alyona Minkovski that while it was "rewarding" for him to hear from younger athletes who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT), he's "always surprised" that so few professional sports stars have come out.

"That's always been a little weird to me," he said.