Which status could be reviewed and altered at anytime. I suspect that's why the NFL has gone so PC since Obama got into the White House.
The NFL has been PC for decades. The only thing really new here is that a prospective player said publicly, "I'm gay," knowing that the Gay Mafia was in his corner. There have been quite a number of previous players widely reputed to be homosexuals, but the NFL never had to deal with it from a PR perspective.