Carl Nassib's Experience Coming Out Is Very Different From NFL Players Before Him
Before Nassib became the first openly gay active NFL player, others paved the way — and paid a steep cost.
Updated June 22, 2021 at 9:24 PM ET
Carl Nassib has made history as the first active NFL player to announce that he is gay.
On Monday, the 28-year-old defensive lineman with the Las Vegas Raiders came out in a video shared on his Instagram page. His team published a statement supporting for him, marking what many hope to be a shift toward more acceptance and inclusiveness in not only the National Football League, but in the wider world of professional sports.
The easy-going way Nassib made the historic announcement mattered, Jim Buzinski, a co-founder of the sports news site Outsports . "There wasn't a coordinated media campaign. He just looked like he was in his backyard recording, you know, a video for his friends. And so I thought that that really gave it
