Filed Under » Kansas City Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs bravely stepped forward today and announced they are gay, becoming the first team in major professional sports to come out as homosexual.

"We just felt the time was right," said team owner Clark Hunt. "American society has thankfully become more open to gays, but there is still pushback in sports. It is our hope that this announcement can open dialogue in sports and encourage other teams and players to come forward."

The franchise says it has known they are gay for years.

"Back in the mid-60s or so we when we were only a few years old we started having conflicting feelings about the Raiders," said former quarterback Len Dawson. "But I'm not sure we really even knew what gay was back then. And if we did, it wouldn't have been accepted in a state like Missouri."

The Chiefs say they hope their admission dispels some gay stereotypes.

"Everyone knew that this would happen in the sports world one day — that someone would come forward," says running back Jamaal Charles. "But I think people thought that if a team would do it, it would be some soccer team from the coasts. But we're an NFL team, we're tough, we're macho, we're from the Midwest … and we are very, and proudly, gay."

The makers of Madden 11 have hurried a downloadable patch that is now available to all users that includes the Kansas City Chiefs franchise and 2010 roster.

But an EA Sports spokesman says the original exclusion of the Chiefs from the game was not an oversight.

"As remarkable as modern gaming systems are, we still have to conserve our resources as much as possible," said EA spokesman Josh Connor. "And we felt it made the most sense to leave the Chiefs off the game so we could improve the gaming experience in other aspects."