Brendon Ayanbadejo is one of two NFL players on the seventh season of American Ninja Warrior. (The other is Seattle Seahawk Jon Ryan.) Ayanbadejo has had a successful career on the gridiron from college (UCLA) to the NFL (Atlanta Falcons, Chicago Bears, and Miami Dolphins). He also played in the Canadian Football League, where Michael Sam — the first openly gay (almost) NFL player — recently signed with the Montreal Alouettes.
Off the field, Ayanbadejo has become an advocate for same-sex marriage. Ayanbedejo publicly announced that, “as the son of interracial parents whose own marriage would have been illegal in 16 states prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Loving v. Virginia decision in 1967, [he] had no intention of remaining silent on an issue of conscience and public importance.” American Ninja Warrior airs Mondays at 8pm on NBC.
