#HMBlog: Former Tampa Bay Buccaneer & current Raider, Carl Nassib, makes history as first active openly gay player in the NFL
"Football Media Day 2015-Carl Nassib" by pennstatenews is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Las Vegas Raiders defensive lineman Carl Nassib became the first active NFL player in history to announce that he is gay. Nassib played for the Buccaneers in 2018-19 and has 12.5 sacks during that time. He took to his Instagram to make the announcement:
“What’s up people,” Nassib posted on Instagram. “I’m at my house in West Chester Pennsylvania. I just wanted to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now but finally feel comfortable getting it off my chest. I really have the best life, the best family, friends and job a guy can ask for.
“I’m a pretty private person so I hope you guys know that I’m not doing this for attention. I just think that representation and visibility are so important. I actually hope that one day, videos like this and the whole coming out process are not necessary, but until then I will do my best and my part to cultivate a culture that’s accepting and compassionate and I’m going to start by donating $100,000 to the Trevor Project. They’re an incredible organization, they’re the number one suicide-prevention service for LGBTQ youth in America.”
Nassib, 28, is enterting his sixth NFL season, his second with the Raiders after stints with the Browns and Buccaneers. He has 20.5 career sacks.