Page 99 of Two for Roughing

Chapter Seventeen

Cole Williams [off-screen]: Has it changed the Sea Lions’ locker room dynamic to have team leaders not only come out as gay but as being together?

Breezy: Nah. I mean, they were gay and dating before they came out, so.

Cole Williams: There have been some takes circling that with the two of them, and Kilian Howard before his trade, the Sea Lions boasted the most LGBTQIA-plus locker room in any professional sport. Would you agree?

Breezy: [laughs] I mean, I guess if you care about counting it out, sure. There’s this statistic I read about in a pamphlet. It said one-tenth of the population is gay. Or some version of not straight, I guess. So, on a hockey team, one-tenth would be two—two and a half—guys. More if you count coaches.

Cole Williams: Are you saying there are two gay men on every NHL team?

Breezy: No, no, probably not. See, the pamphlet also said there are probably a lot more people out there who are LGBTQIA-plus but never get the chance to learn about the whole community and find the place where they fit, and I think that’s us. When you grow up in men’s hockey, you don’t have a ton of access to this stuff. But when we started working with Pot of Gold, we got access to all this new information.

Cole Williams: Meaning what, exactly, for the team?

Breezy: I think it opened new doors for us. When you’re in an environment where you can talk about this stuff, it changes the way you think. Before, I thought, “Oh, we’re hockey players, and hockey players have to be this one way.” And now, I know there’s so many ways to be, and it’s all a spectrum. So, guys who assumed they’d have to be closeted their whole careers, like Tom and Jax, found ways to be more open. And guys like Howie or me, who had never really thought about it, learned more about themselves.

Cole Williams: I’m sorry. Are you saying you’re also gay?

Breezy: [smiling broadly] I have no idea actually! I’m on the asexual spectrum, so it’s rare for me to experience attraction to anyone. It’s only happened once, and that was with a guy, so who knows?

Cole Williams: Wow, um, thank you for telling me.

Breezy: You’re welcome! And honestly, being able to talk about it now is all thanks to the work we’ve done with the shelter and having team members who are so open about this stuff. Before, I always thought I was doing it wrong, you know? Love, sex, dating, all that. That’s an isolating experience. Like, as far as I knew, I was a straight guy who was really bad at it. Now I know it’s not my fault. I’m part of this whole different community I never knew existed.

Top comments:

CLions2010: well now they’re just making shit up

calabreezy: this makes me feel bad for all the times I called Breezy dumb BC I have no idea wtf he’s talking about

the_ace_collective: Thank you so much for giving this interview, Chris! Having acespec representation means so much, and hopefully, it can save the next generation of aces from feeling the way you did!

(From “The New Normal: Chris Calabrese on the Recent Revelations from the Sea Lions Locker Room” interview by Cole Williams, published in the San Francisco Chronicle on 12/28/2026)

Damir was going to drive Kilian insane.

Not in the fun way either. Kilian would love for it to be in the fun way, regardless of the fact that they were staying in the same hotel and on the same floor as the remaining team members, and they’d agreed to stop fucking around now the break was over. They both knew Kilian was gagging for whatever Damir would give him.

What Kilian hadn’t asked for was a massive, hulking bodyguard. Unfortunately, Damir had decided to be one anyway. He kept trying to protect Kilian: from standing between Kilian and the rest of the locker room, eyeing their teammates for potential conflict, to participating in a team-wide game of truth or dare—something he very obviously hated every minute of.

It was annoying.

It was also humiliating to have the guy he was in love with act as though Kilian couldn’t take care of himself.

But Kilian tried to keep a positive attitude about the whole thing. The team had been awesome about his sexuality. Crude and clueless, yes, but not bigoted. His family had been amazing. So what if Damir wasn’t into Kilian as more than a project? Kilian would get over it.

Someday.

Not today. As they headed into the LA Monarchs’ arena for their game, Damir glowered at the team photographer as if she were public enemy number one. Kilian found his obvious urge to intervene and protect both charming and infuriating.

“Chill, dude,” Kilian whispered.

Beside him, Damir tensed.

“That is the opposite of chilling.”

“People are going to talk to you about…this, you know.” Damir gestured to Kilian’s outfit.