Heated Rivalry, which follows LGBTQ+ athletes navigating professional leagues, “would have made me feel a little safer,” Eldridge tells PEOPLE exclusively over Zoom. “If I was a closeted athlete and saw how many people fell in love with the story portrayed in Heated Rivalry, I would have felt a little safer.”Jake Eldridge playing football. Recently, Eldridge reflected on the impact the show Heated Rivalry might have had on him in a TikTok post that has been viewed over 2 million times. “When I watch Heated Rivalry, all I can think about is… how much it would have helped me,” he wrote. Not necessarily pressuring people to come out while they're playing, because football, whenever I was playing, was still very much not the most accepting.