Mitch Brown, the Australian Football League's first openly bisexual player, has spoken out about the pressures of professional football, describing a culture where outward displays of masculinity, including heavy drinking and sexual bragging, were valued over athletic achievement. Brown, a former West Coast Eagles defender, revealed that upon joining the league as a 17-year-old, he was taught to suppress emotions and conform to a narrow definition of masculinity.

"Talking about your emotions meant weakness, and weakness meant you wouldn't be picked for the side," Brown stated. "But the more I leaned into that, the more I was accepted in this high performing AFL environment."

He elaborated that on-field performance was secondary to how much alcohol a player could consume and how many women they could impress with stories. "It wasn't about how fast I could run or how high I could jump. It was how much alcohol I could drink, and how many women I could sleep with, and bring it back to the locker room and tell stories," he said. "That gave me more credit at the footy club than my on-field performance."

Brown, now 37, made these remarks while attending the Melbourne premiere of "Death Of A Salesman." He was drafted by the West Coast Eagles in 2006 and made his senior debut at 18. Throughout his 10-season career, he played 94 games but was hampered by significant injuries, including a knee reconstruction in 2008.

He also cited the strain of concealing his sexuality as a factor in his decision to leave professional football at age 28. In August 2025, when he publicly came out as bisexual, Brown described the AFL as "hyper-masculine" and noted that homophobic conversations made it difficult to address his sexuality openly.

Brown recalled an instance where teammates discussed their discomfort with sharing a shower with a gay player. "I remember two people having a conversation around how they would feel having a shower next to a gay man, and one of the players said, 'I'd rather be in a cage full of lions than have a shower next to a gay man'," he said. He admitted to often staying silent about such remarks for fear of being perceived as gay or bisexual.

Brown believes that gay and bisexual players continue to remain in the closet within the AFL and expressed his hope that by sharing his experience, he could help others feel less isolated. "I don't believe that this is about me. It's not about Mitch Brown being the first at all," he said at the time of his coming out. "For me, it's about sharing my experience so others can feel seen."

Brown is the twin brother of Collingwood player Nathan Brown and was previously married to netballer Shae Bolton-Brown.