Nassib, Carl (1993- )

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    Carl Nassib Made History, but Also a Big Play

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    Last week Nassib, 28, became the first openly gay player to compete in an N.F.L. game. Teammates, the news media and observers casually noted the feat, then cheered his game-changing play.One of the most significant cultural milestones in the recent history of North American sports occurred with about as much pomp and circumstance as a shrug of the shoulders.No openly gay player had ever competed in a regular-season game in the N.F.L.’s 102-year history until Sept. 13, when Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib strode onto the field just as he had done in every game of his six-year pro career.Amid the pageantry of a Monday Night Football game, Nassib’s barrier-breaking moment took a back seat to the Raiders’ ceremonial opening of their new jet-black, $2 billion stadium to fans. The biggest acknowledgment of Nassib’s feat came from some attendants wearing his No. 94 jersey, not from any other orchestrated gesture.On Sunday, he will do it again as the Raiders play the Steelers, with Nassib and the team making a concerted effort to take what he has achieved in stride and leaving it to others to discern and dissect whether a significant cultural shift has occurred in the league.Experts on diversity and inclusion in sports said that was how it should be.“I think the fact that it wasn’t a distraction is a very positive sign,” said Richard Lapchick, director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. “This is a sign of how much this has been accepted and that there was not a big fuss being made.”On June 21, Nassib, came out as gay in a video posted to his Instagram account, saying he had internalized his sexuality as a secret for 15 years. The one-minute video, filmed outside of his home in West Chester, Pa., ignited a flurry of congratulatory messages on social media, including from his N.F.L. peers, celebrities and President Biden. Nassib’s jersey became the top-seller in the N.F.L. withing 24 hours, according to Fanatics, the league’s e-commerce partner.Before Nassib, 15 players in league history identified as gay or bisexual, according to Outsports, a news website that covers L.G.B.T.Q. athletes and issues in sports. But unlike Nassib, they either announced their sexuality after their playing days had ended or had never appeared in a regular-season game.Nassib’s hit on Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson in overtime gave the Raiders possession with less than five minutes remaining. David Becker/Associated PressAhead of the season’s start, Nassib said he would donate $100,000 to the Trevor Project, a crisis intervention organization for L.G.B.T.Q. youth. He contacted he organization about two months before his Instagram post to discuss a plan, said Amit Paley, the Trevor Project’s executive director. In their conversations, Paley said Nassib wanted to raise awareness of L.G.B.T.Q. issues rather than just focus the spotlight on himself.Forty percent of the more than 60,000 L.G.B.T.Q. youth respondents in a 2020 Trevor Project survey said they had contemplated suicide, and 68 percent of respondents in another survey conducted by the organization released this month said they had not participated in sports for their school or community club for fear of discrimination.As Nassib’s post spread, traffic to the Trevor Project’s website increased by over 350 percent, and the organization received at least $225,000 in pledged donations by the end of that week.“I think Carl really didn’t want this to be a big deal, and hopefully one day it isn’t a big deal when someone comes out,” Paley said in an interview. “But clearly it was a big deal to come out and be the first in this way.”Things quieted as training camp began a month later. Nassib’s jersey no longer tops league sales, but it remains in the top five among Raiders players, according to Fanatics.He declined multiple interview requests and spoke publicly only once before the first game. Against the Baltimore Ravens, Nassib played 44 percent of the defensive snaps in a rotational role, making three tackles. But in overtime, he collided with Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson for a sack and forced a fumble that the Raiders’ defense recovered. The offense scored a walk-off touchdown to win the game, 33-27, two plays later.Nassib, now on his third team since the Cleveland Browns drafted him in 2016, led the nation with 15.5 sacks at Penn State as a senior and won the Lombardi Award as the nation’s best lineman. He tries to remember things from every game, he said, but he especially savored the Monday night win.“It was really special,” Nassib said in a postgame news conference. “I’m really happy that we got the win on the day that kind of made a little bit of history.”“It was really special,” Nassib said in a postgame news conference. “I’m really happy that we got the win on the day that kind of made a little bit of history.”Rick Scuteri/Associated PressHis teammates did not mention Nassib’s historic role in the win. Coach Jon Gruden complimented only his performance on the field. Defensive end Maxx Crosby did, too, saying simply, “Carl’s a baller and I am proud of the guy.”ESPN, the network which broadcast the game, also treated Nassib’s achievement subtly. It aired a 28-second video in the third quarter with clips of his Instagram video and a few pictures. On an alternate broadcast on ESPN2 featuring retired N.F.L. quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Eli Manning, the former N.B.A. player Charles Barkley appeared as a guest and wore Nassib’s jersey.The nonchalant attitude of the coverage in some ways mimicked the reception of other male pro athletes who played their first games after coming out. The former N.B.A. player Jason Collins received modest applause from an opposing crowd when he entered a game for the Nets in 2014, 10 months after announcing that he was gay. But there was no other form of acknowledgment inside the arena, and Collins and his teammates downplayed the moment to the news media.Robbie Rogers, the first M.L.S. player to appear in a game while openly gay, said things felt “normal” amid a typical atmosphere for a Los Angeles Galaxy game in 2013.Nassib in August said his teammates had supported him since he came out. The Raiders did not make any players available for comment, but quarterback Derek Carr, who said his locker is only a few spots away from Nassib’s, said during training camp that he had not seen anything to dispute that.“When he came in, I just like to watch, and not one person from my point of view has treated him any different,” Carr said.Amy Trask, the former Raiders’ chief executive, said that fits tradition for a team that has historically embraced diversity. In 1997, she became the first woman chief executive in the N.F.L. Tom Flores, who is Mexican American, was the first Latino coach in the N.F.L. to win a Super Bowl, winning two with the Raiders, in the 1980 and 1983 seasons. The team also drafted Eldridge Dickey, the first Black quarterback taken in the first round, in 1968, when the Raiders played in the A.F.L.“He went out and did his job, the way anyone would want any player to do his job,” said Amy Trask, the former Raiders’ chief executive.David Becker/Associated PressTrask said she did not focus on the history she made during her first day or whether her colleagues would change the way they acted toward her. She is not surprised at how Nassib and the Raiders handled last week.“This is an organization that has a track record of hiring without regard to race, gender or any other individuality which has no bearing whatsoever on whether one can do a job,” Trask said in an interview. “It’s very, very special, from my perspective, that Carl is a Raider.“He went out and did his job, the way anyone would want any player to do his job,” she added.If he continues to do the job well, said Wayne Mabry, arguably the Raiders’ most recognizable fan, Nassib’s sexuality would not change how he views the player. For nearly 30 years, Mabry, nicknamed, “The Violator,” attended almost every Raiders home game dressed as a pirate with black-and-silver face paint, leather boots and spiked shoulder pads.It was a tribute he said was inspired partly by the team’s colloquial reputation as the “Bad Boys” of the league. It is irrelevant, he said, that a gay player is on a team with such a historically gritty perception.“Warriors come in all shapes and sizes,” Mabry, 64, said. “It’s about what you bring to the table. As long as he can help us win, he’s a warrior to me.” More

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      Cheers for Carl Nassib Show a Changing Football Culture

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      Nassib’s coming-out announcement has been met with largely positive responses, a reception other football players who publicly identified as gay, like Dave Kopay, did not experience.A day is coming when this will not make headlines.Dave Kopay, now 78, was the first major team athlete in North America to publicly come out as gay. He did it in 1975, shortly after retiring from the N.F.L., through a newspaper article. Then he bore the brunt for years.“Blackballed from football,” he told me this week. “College and pro. I was an outcast.”Michael Sam, a star lineman at Missouri, came out as gay through interviews with ESPN and The New York Times. It was 2014. He received more support than Kopay did decades earlier but a similar backlash. Despite being one of the best defensive players in college football, he never played in an N.F.L. game.Jake Bain came out while still in high school in 2017. Since he was a star running back, news stories focused on his sexuality, and with them came a mix of care and venom. Bain struggled with depression and quit the game after a year as one of the few openly gay players in college football.On Monday, Las Vegas Raiders defensive lineman Carl Nassib became the first active N.F.L. player to come out. He did it on Instagram, another athlete telling his story in his own way. And he did so with a joy and ease that made me realize just how much the world is changing.“I just want to take a quick moment to say that I am gay,” he said, looking directly into his cellphone’s camera from his home in West Chester, Pa.He would continue for less than a minute, saying he is happy and has supportive family and friends, and pledging $100,000 to the Trevor Project, which offers suicide prevention for L.G.B.T.Q. youth. However brief, it felt like we were watching a man become unburdened, an athlete knowing he was sending his truth to an audience more willing to embrace his message than ever before.The Raiders defensive lineman came out in a video posted on social media and said he would donate $100,000 to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit dedicated to suicide prevention efforts for L.G.B.T.Q. youth.John Bazemore/Associated PressConsider the tone of the responses that have so far followed Nassib’s announcement. The lack of public recrimination and the type of bullying disgust that gay athletes have endured for years.His message has been widely hailed. Kudos came quickly: from the N.F.L. commissioner, from stars across the league, from the Raiders’ owner and from Coach Jon Gruden.With a mix of delight and awe, Kopay watched it all unfold from his apartment in Palm Springs, Calif.“Looking at all of this, seeing the reaction to Carl’s announcement, it gives me a surge of contentment,” he said. “But I have to say, I thought this would happen 40 years ago.”He noted the clutch of retired N.F.L. players who have recently made their sexual identity publicly known, and the large numbers in women’s sports like basketball and tennis. But an active player coming out in the N.F.L., a league still basking in a soup of toxic masculinity and macho posturing? For Kopay, a seeker of true change in sports, that has always been the holy grail.“I thought that when I came out it would not be long before players in the league followed me,” he said. “But I had to wait. Oh, did I have to wait.”Kopay, who was a running back, recalled the 1960s and ’70s, when he lined up for a series of teams in an N.F.L. career that stretched nearly a decade. He didn’t hide his sexuality. Most of his teammates and coaches knew. He remembers that Vince Lombardi, who coached Kopay in Washington, was particularly supportive.But going public? Not a chance.Years later, Sam tried to break that mold. When he told his truth after his final season at Missouri, a profound societal shift was underway. A little over a year later, the Supreme Court would finally make gay marriage legal in the United States.Still, the football world was not ready. On draft night, TV cameras zoomed in as Sam kissed his boyfriend on national television. Cue the bleating anger from some fans, the weak-kneed squeamishness from some retrograde corners of the league.The St. Louis Rams cut Sam in training camp and, despite having been one of the best defenders in college, he was out of football a year after being drafted.Jake Bain knew all about Michael Sam’s story. “What I took from watching that unfold was wariness,” he said.Back then, Bain was entering high school in St. Louis, and already a football sensation in youth leagues. Watching the trouble endured by Sam made Bain, who now identifies as pansexual, feel he should keep quiet about his own sexuality.Still, as time passed and he began confiding in counselors, his confidence and self-understanding grew. He came out during a speech at a school assembly. Soon the story of the gay state champion football star was in the local newspapers, on TV, posted on the internet. Along with support came derision. Opponents peppered him with extra hits and verbal barbs. Protesters from a hate group that calls itself a church showed up at his school, shouting that he was headed for hell.In 2018, the college football prospect Jake Bain came out as gay and went on to play at Indiana State. “I wish I’d had a Carl Nassib to look up to as an example,” he said.A J Mast for The New York TimesBain ended up at Indiana State. He became one of the few openly L.G.B.T.Q. players in Division I football. The team and coaches there were supportive, he said, but as the headlines kept coming about his sexuality so did the pressure and the venomous hatred, especially online.Bain spiraled into depression. He said that after friends found out he was cutting himself, he entered a mental hospital for three days. The experience made him realize that he had to walk away from football. The pressure that sprang from his decision to come out proved too much.“I wish I’d had a Carl Nassib to look up to as an example,” said Bain, now a student at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. “But I just missed out. Now we have a player from the N.F.L.” He added, “Just knowing that this is happening is a powerful truth for me and all the young kids out there who dream of playing in the league.”Dave Kopay could not agree more.“To see someone out there like Carl, to know what he will represent to so many, I just can’t get over the emotions,” he said. “His example shows what I have been saying for years to young people: ‘Relax. Just be happy with who you are and don’t be afraid to tell the world. There will be critics, but there will also be love and support. Just make it happen, with no shame, because we are on the right path.’”Indeed, we are.Resistance to change — to full inclusion and equal treatment, no matter one’s sexual or gender identity — is still with us. It still must be fought by anyone who cares deeply for justice.But we’re on the right path.I hope someday soon I won’t be writing about this because it won’t even be news. More

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      The N.F.L.'s Carl Nassib Broke a Barrier. Will Others Follow?

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      The number of publicly out L.G.B.T.Q. athletes in men’s biggest pro leagues lags far behind that in women’s sports. Will Carl Nassib’s announcement change that?Congratulatory posts flooded social media on Monday when Las Vegas Raiders defensive lineman Carl Nassib announced on Instagram that he is gay, becoming the first active N.F.L. player to do so.Jerseys and T-shirts bearing his name were the top sellers among all N.F.L. players on Monday, according to Fanatics, the league’s e-commerce partner. Stars like Giants running back Saquon Barkley — who played with Nassib at Penn State — and Arizona Cardinals defensive end J.J. Watt quickly voiced their support for Nassib on Twitter. Well-known advocacy organizations praised his declaration as monumental.“I think people are going to see what I’ve seen for years, that sports are a lot more accepting than people give it credit for,” said Cyd Zeigler, the co-founder of Outsports, a news website that covers L.G.B.T.Q. athletes and issues in sports.Yet Nassib said in his post that he had “agonized” over the decision to go public about his sexuality, after keeping it to himself for 15 years. That he is the only active player who is publicly out in one of the four major American men’s pro sports leagues suggests the height of the barrier that male athletes face openly acknowledging a gender or sexual identity that doesn’t conform with those traditionally tolerated in locker rooms.Other gay athletes who have gone public with their sexuality have said they felt pressured to suppress it — and may still despite currents in society shifting to more acceptance — for simple yet powerfully prohibitive reasons. In locker rooms, on fields and on courts, male athletes are taught to embrace heteronormative standards of masculinity.In February 2014, the N.B.A. became the first of the four major American sports leagues to have an openly gay active player when Jason Collins, who had come out publicly the previous spring, joined the Nets. John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)“I think it’s men and the machismo culture that pro sports are played, in particular,” that has inhibited men who identify as gay, bisexual, or queer from coming out, said Richard Lapchick, the director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport.Still, some male athletes ventured to do so despite concerns about their safety and backlash from teammates and fans. In February 2014, the N.B.A. became the first of the four major American sports leagues to have an openly gay active player when Jason Collins, who had come out publicly the previous spring, joined the Nets. He retired from playing later that year.Michael Sam, who had been an all-American selection during his college career as a defensive end at Missouri, announced that he is gay weeks ahead of Collins’s signing, in the lead-up to that year’s N.F.L. draft. The Rams selected him in the seventh, and last, round, and an overjoyed Sam cried and kissed his boyfriend on national TV in one of the most visible displays of gay male sexuality in the history of sports.But the Rams cut Sam before the end of training camp. The Dallas Cowboys then signed Sam to their practice squad, but he did not play in a regular season game. He retired from football in 2015.When Michael Sam was selected in the seventh round of the 2014 N.F.L. draft, he kissed his boyfriend on national TV in one of the most visible displays of gay male sexuality in the history of sports.ESPN, via Associated PressIntermittently, a handful of other notable male professional athletes made announcements about their sexuality throughout the years only after their sports careers had ended. But in the mid-aughts the stream of male former players to publicly come out as gay quickened, seeming to herald a shift in sporting culture. Athletes like the former N.B.A. player John Amaechi (2007) and retired N.F.L. players Wade Davis (2012) and Kwame Harris (2013) publicly announced that they are gay in memoirs, magazine cover articles and, in Harris’s case, in a CNN interview.Major League Soccer has had two active openly gay players — Robbie Rogers, who came out in 2013, and Collin Martin, who did so in 2018.In Major League Baseball, Glenn Burke, an outfielder who spent four seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Oakland Athletics in the 1970s, is known as the first player in major league history to come out to his teammates during his career. He came out publicly in 1982, three years after his last major league game. Burke, who died of AIDS complications in 1995, was supported by some teammates but was largely met with discrimination.The momentum for other gay male N.F.L. athletes to come out while they were still playing may have dwindled when Sam’s career fizzled out before it began. Nassib’s announcement may have been more readily accepted — publicly, at least — among his peers because he is already a dependable veteran.Nassib has already played five seasons in the N.F.L. and has kept a relatively low profile at an unglamorous, but important, position. Drafted by the Cleveland Browns, he has appeared in 73 games, starting in 37 of them while recording 143 tackles.Being labeled a “distraction” has long been a stigma assigned to players who espoused any view or identity that stood out from their teammates, but there’s an upside to Nassib’s increased fame, Zeigler said. His visibility could offer more chances to discuss topics surrounding L.G.B.T.Q. athletes.“Tons of people are going to be talking about this over the next couple of days, then again when he shows up for his first game and then again when he intercepts the ball and runs it back for a touchdown,” Zeigler said. “Teams and players can handle a couple of extra cameras. This will be here for a while.”Layshia Clarendon, who openly identifies as transgender and nonbinary, in January became the W.N.B.A.’s first player to have a top surgery while active.Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated PressMen’s pro teams in America have lagged behind women’s, where L.G.B.T.Q. stars in team and individual sports have publicly identified themselves and still been celebrated. W.N.B.A. stars Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner and Elena Delle Donne are among the league’s current players who have come out as lesbian and Layshia Clarendon, who openly identifies as transgender and nonbinary, in January became the league’s first player to have a top surgery while active.The outspoken United States Women’s National Team soccer star Megan Rapinoe, who is engaged to the W.N.B.A’s Sue Bird, said after a Women’s World Cup match in 2019 that “you can’t win a championship without gays on your team.” That year’s World Cup included more than three dozen players and coaches who are gay, in fact, and the winning United States team had at least one couple among its members.In the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the highest-caliber mixed martial arts promotion, the best female fighter of all time, Amanda Nunes, is an out lesbian.In contrast to L.G.B.T.Q. male athletes, their out peers in women’s American sports leagues have enjoyed more acceptance from the public and from their heterosexual teammates in recent years. Rapinoe and Bird are among the most popular and marketable female athletes in the world. In Nunes’s last fight in March, she brought her infant child and fiancée inside the octagon after defeating her opponent.According to Taylor Carr, chief of staff at Athlete Ally, an advocacy organization for L.G.B.T.Q. athletes, that could owe to a greater sense of camaraderie in women’s sports brought on by other collective social fights. Female athletes have for decades fought for equal pay, and the W.N.B.A. prominently led in many social justice causes, including a successful campaign by Atlanta Dream players to oust the team’s owner, the Republican former senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, after she opposed the Black Lives Matter movement the league’s teams were supporting.“When you have all of these people in women’s athletics who are sending very clear signals about what they believe, it makes you feel like ‘I have the ability to compete and live as my personal self,’” Carr said. “I am not just an athlete, I can bring my entire self to the court.”The U.S. Women’s National Team soccer star Megan Rapinoe, center, who is engaged to the W.N.B.A’s Sue Bird, right, said after a Women’s World Cup match in 2019 that “you can’t win a championship without gays on your team.” Ezra Shaw/Getty ImagesThere are signs of Americans’ growing acceptance of L.G.B.T.Q. people, a cultural shift that may encourage other gay, bisexual and queer male athletes to come out publicly. Seventy percent of respondents in a Gallup poll conducted this year said they support same-sex marriage, a 10 percent jump from 2015 when the Supreme Court ruled that all states must recognize those unions. Nearly 6 percent of respondents in a 2020 Gallup poll identified as L.G.B.T.Q., a 1 percent jump from 2017.It may take longer for that sea change to erode homophobic attitudes in male sports leagues, particularly the N.F.L. Players have previously faced backlash for offensive comments, some made in the immediate aftermath of a high-profile athlete publicly identifying as gay.The former Miami Dolphins receiver Mike Wallace posted on Twitter after Collins’s announcement in 2013 that he didn’t understand why with “all these beautiful women in the world and guys want to mess with other guys.” Wallace later apologized and deleted the post.San Francisco running back Garrison Hearst apologized in 2002 for using a slur and saying he wouldn’t want a gay player as a teammate after the retired Minnesota Vikings player Esera Tuaolo publicly came out as gay that year. Hearst’s comment elicited public apologies from the 49ers’ team owners and then-head coach Steve Mariucci, but no penalty from the league.For its part, the N.F.L. has made efforts to publicly support L.G.B.T.Q. inclusivity. The league sponsored a float in the 2018 and 2019 New York City Pride Parades, participated in promotional efforts during Pride Month in June like changing official social media avatars to include rainbows, and supported the You Can Play Project, which provides resources to encourage inclusivity in youth sports.Troy Vincent, the executive vice president of football operations, wrote an essay last year in which he argued that the N.F.L. was ready to welcome its first openly gay player. The league’s official social media accounts, including the Raiders’, responded to Nassib’s video with heart icons.Lapchick, who has studied gender and hiring practices in major sports leagues for over 25 years, noted football’s changing cultural landscape. “If you told me five years ago that the N.F.L. and individual teams would use hearts in their communications, I wouldn’t have guessed that,” he said. “Especially among men, there was a fear of coming out, and he broke that fear. I think the reaction will show other N.F.L. players that they can do this, too.”Andrew Das More

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      Who is Carl Nassib? The First Openly Gay NFL Player

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      “I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now,” the N.F.L. lineman said. He comes from a football family, was a standout at Penn State and has taught his teammates about personal finance.Las Vegas Raiders defensive lineman Carl Nassib walked outside his home in West Chester, Pa., looked directly into his phone and did something that he said he hoped would one day no longer be necessary.In a few brief sentences, the 28-year-old Nassib came out as gay. The video clip he recorded and then posted to his Instagram account made him the first active N.F.L. player to do so.“I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now,” Nassib said. “But I finally feel comfortable enough to get it off my chest.”In the one-minute video and a statement that accompanied it, Nassib said he had agonized over the moment for 15 years, and that he had been meaning to make his announcement for a while. Conversations with friends and family made it possible, he said, for him to publicly say that he is gay.The Raiders defensive lineman came out in a video posted on social media and said he would donate $100,000 to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit dedicated to suicide prevention efforts for L.G.B.T.Q. youth.John Bazemore/Associated Press“I actually hope that like one day videos like this and the whole coming-out process are just not necessary,” Nassib said, “but until then I’m going to do my best and my part to cultivate a culture that’s accepting, that’s compassionate.”Nassib added that he was donating $100,000 to a nonprofit suicide prevention organization that focuses on L.G.B.T.Q. people under 25 years old.Who Is Carl Nassib?Nassib, a 6-foot-7, 275-pound end, was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the third round of the 2016 draft. He played in 14 games during his rookie season, and established himself as a starter in 2017.Nassib was a third-round pick of the Cleveland Browns. He spent his first two years in the N.F.L. with the team.Tony Dejak/Associated PressWhen the Browns released Nassib near the end of training camp in 2018, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers claimed him on waivers. He started 17 games in two years in Tampa Bay, totaling 63 tackles, 20 tackles for loss and 12½ sacks.In March 2020, he signed a three-year, $25 million deal with the Raiders. He is coming off a season in which he had 27 total tackles and his first career interception, a play on which he wasn’t taken down until he had returned the ball 23 yards.A Football FamilyBorn in West Chester, Nassib comes from a football family. His father, Gilbert, played tight end at the University of Delaware in the late 1970s. He has a younger brother who played defensive end at Delaware and a cousin who played defensive back at Syracuse.His older brother, Ryan, played quarterback at Syracuse and was drafted in 2013 by the Giants. Ryan spent two seasons as a backup quarterback in New York, then had brief and unremarkable stints with the Saints and the Jaguars before Jacksonville released him in 2017.Nassib with his former Penn State teammate Saquon Barkley in 2018.Joe Hermitt/PennLive.com, via Associated PressA Walk-On Turned All-AmericanNassib was a walk-on at Penn State who did not play at all at first, then only sparingly. He didn’t really break out on the field, in fact, until his senior season in 2015, when he led the nation with 15½ sacks.A unanimous all-American and the Big Ten defensive player of the year that season, Nassib won the Lombardi Award (given to college football’s best lineman or linebacker) and the Ted Hendricks Award (as the country’s best defensive end).His college coach, James Franklin, was among the first to release a statement of support for Nassib on Monday.“I was proud of Carl when he led the nation in sacks,” Franklin said, “but I’m even more proud of him now.”Amateur Financial AdviserSome people may remember Nassib from an episode of the HBO football reality show “Hard Knocks.”In the clip, Nassib uses a whiteboard and some quick math to teach other members of the Browns’ defensive line about compound interest and financial literacy.Support From the N.F.L.In his Instagram post, Nassib thanked the N.F.L., his coaches and his peers in the league for their respect and acceptance, and acknowledged that many gay people before him did not receive that same support.“I stand on the shoulders of giants, incredible people who paved the way for me to have this opportunity,” Nassib said. “I do not know all the history behind our courageous L.G.B.T.Q. community, but I am eager to learn and to help continue the fight for equality and acceptance.”“Very proud of Carl Nassib! Incredibly happy for him and can’t wait to watch him play this upcoming season!” wrote the former N.B.A. player Jason Collins, who became the first openly gay male athlete in 2013.N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell expressed the league’s support for Nassib in a statement.“The N.F.L. family is proud of Carl for courageously sharing his truth today,” Goodell wrote. “Representation matters. We share his hope that someday soon statements like his will no longer be newsworthy as we march toward full equality for the LGBTQ+ community.”Nassib also received public support from the Raiders, Penn State and current and past athletes. More

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      Carl Nassib Becomes First NFL Player to Come Out As Gay

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      The Raiders defensive lineman came out in a statement posted to his Instagram account on Monday, becoming the first active player in the league to publicly identify as gay.The Raiders defensive lineman came out in a video posted on social media and said he would donate $100,000 to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit dedicated to suicide prevention efforts for L.G.B.T.Q. youth.John Bazemore/Associated PressOn Monday, Raiders defensive lineman Carl Nassib became the first active N.F.L. player to publicly declare that he is gay.“I just want to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay,” Nassib said in a video posted to his Instagram account. “I just think that representation and visibility are so important. I actually hope that like one day videos like this and the whole coming-out process are just not necessary, but until then I’m going to do my best and my part to cultivate a culture that’s accepting, that’s compassionate,” before adding that he would donate $100,000 to The Trevor Project, a nonprofit group that focuses on suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning youth.“Sadly, I have agonized over this moment for the last 15 years,” he wrote in the same post.Nassib, a five-year N.F.L. veteran who previously played with the Cleveland Browns and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, said he was finally “comfortable getting it off my chest.”Nassib, 28, thanked his coaches, teammates and the N.F.L. for their support.“I would not be able to do this without them,” he wrote in his Instagram post.In a statement Monday, Commissioner Roger Goodell said he was “proud of Carl for courageously sharing his truth today. Representation matters.”The Raiders quickly showed their support for Nassib’s announcement, writing “proud of you, Carl” in a post to the team’s Twitter account that also included his original statement. Two of his teammates, defensive lineman Darius Stills and edge rusher Maxx Crosby, voiced their support by commenting under Nassib’s post that they were proud of him. DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the N.F.L. Players Association also said in a Twitter post that he and the union supported Nassib.Nassib’s announcement, made during Pride Month, is a significant turning point for the N.F.L., and makes him the first openly gay active player in the league’s 101-year history.“Sports are, in many ways, one of the last bastions of a place where homophobia can thrive,” said Cathy Renna, a spokeswoman for the National L.G.B.T.Q. Task Force. “So to have a professional athlete of that caliber, particularly in one of the major sports leagues like the N.F.L., it really is historic.”A bevy of current and former athletes from around sports reacted positively to Nassib’s announcement, including the retired tennis star Billie Jean King, who wrote, “the ability to live an authentic life is so important,” in a social media post Monday.Sarah Kate Ellis, chief executive of the L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy organization Glaad, called the announcement “a historic reflection of the growing state of L.G.B.T.Q. visibility and inclusion in the world of professional sports, which has been driven by a long list of brave L.G.B.T.Q. athletes who came before him.”Michael Sam, an all-American defensive lineman at Missouri, had been viewed as the most likely to acquire that distinction when he announced he is gay before he being chosen by the Rams in the seventh round of the 2014 N.F.L. draft, but he was cut at the end of that year’s training camp. The Dallas Cowboys signed Sam to their practice squad, but he never played in a regular season game.Michael Sam publicly came out as gay before he was selected in the seventh round of the 2014 N.F.L. draft but never played in a regular season game.LM Otero/Associated PressSam’s draft status was seen as a barometer of whether the climate of men’s pro sports was becoming more accepting of gay athletes, particularly because in February 2014 the N.B.A. had just become the first of the four traditional major American men’s sports leagues to have an openly gay active player when Jason Collins joined the Nets.But Sam left the N.F.L. without making an impact on the field.Nassib, by contrast, has already played with three teams over five seasons and is under contract through 2022. After a collegiate career at Penn State, he was chosen by the Browns in the third round of the 2016 draft. He played two seasons in Cleveland before playing two more seasons in Tampa. The Raiders signed him to a three-year, $25 million contract in March 2020. He has tallied 20½ sacks during his career.A handful of N.F.L. players had previously announced publicly that they were gay, but all after their playing careers were over. David Kopay became the first pro football player to publicly come out as gay in 1975, three years after he retired. He played for nine seasons with the San Francisco 49ers and four other teams in the 1960s and 1970s, and has since become an activist and an ambassador for the Gay Games, a quadrennial sporting event.Roy Simmons was the second former player to announce that he was gay, doing so in 1992 after his career with the Giants and Washington Football Team had ended. He later disclosed he was H.I.V. positive and died from pneumonia-related complications in 2014 at age 57.Some players like Simmons said they felt they had no choice but to hide their sexual identity while they were in the league. Simmons said he cultivated a reputation for being the life of the party, and had to compartmentalize his football life and his personal life.Simmons also said he never would have declared himself gay during the four seasons he played for the N.F.L. for fear of destroying his career.‘’The N.F.L. has a reputation,” he said in 2003, “and it’s not even a verbal thing — it’s just known. You are gladiators; you are male; you kick butt.”In recent years, the league has publicly supported Pride Month through promotional efforts like changing official social media avatars to include rainbows and supporting the You Can Play Project, which provides resources to encourage inclusivity in youth sports, even as some players have made derogatory statements about gay people with little penalty or supported groups that oppose gay rights.Esera Tuaolo, a former Minnesota Vikings player, publicly came out as gay in 2002.Steve Wewerka for The New York TimesIn 2013, Chris Culliver of the San Francisco 49ers and Chris Clemons of the Seattle Seahawks made offensive comments when asked about the prospect of having a gay teammate.“Got no gay people on the team,” Culliver said. “They gotta get up outta here if they do.” Culliver later apologized, saying, “I’m sorry if I offended anyone. They were very ugly comments.”San Francisco running back Garrison Hearst apologized in 2002 for using a slur and saying he wouldn’t want a gay player as a teammate. His comment came after the former Minnesota Vikings player Esera Tuaolo publicly came out as gay that year after he had retired. Hearst’s comment elicited public apologies from the 49ers’ team owners and then-head coach Steve Mariucci, but no penalty from the league.“Being an African American, I know that discrimination is wrong,” Hearst later said. “I was wrong for saying what I said about anybody, any race or any religion.”The league had little to do with Sam’s announcement because it came before he was drafted. Former N.F.L. players like Brendon Ayanbadejo, who played with the Baltimore Ravens, defended same-sex marriage and gay rights and supported Sam at the time. But few active players publicly echoed his support.Seven years after Sam’s announcement, Nassib’s announcement has been met with ready public support both from the league itself and the Raiders, a team that had previously made notable football milestones with its hires. Tom Flores, who is Mexican-American, was the first Latino coach in the N.F.L. and led the team to Super Bowl titles after the 1981 and 1983 seasons.Amy Trask in 1997 became the Raiders’ chief executive and the first woman of that rank in the N.F.L. The team drafted Eldridge Dickey, the first Black quarterback taken in the first round, in 1968, when the Raiders played in the A.F.L.“We hope that Carl’s historic representation in the N.F.L. will inspire young L.G.B.T.Q. athletes across the country to live their truth and pursue their dreams,” Amit Paley, the executive director and chief executive of the Trevor Project, said in a statement Monday.Emmanuel Morgan and Jesus Jimenez contributed reporting. More