On Monday, Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib came out as gay in an Instagram post.
“I just wanna take a quick moment to say that I’m gay,” Nassib said in the post. “I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now, but I finally feel comfortable enough to get it off my chest.”
There are countless current and former athletes at the amateur, high school, college and professional levels who haven’t publicly come out — and they’re watching. Nassib’s courage, combined with acceptance, can help change the landscape for them.
“I stand on the shoulders of giants, incredible people who paved the way for me to have this opportunity,” Nassib said.
David Kopay, a running back for five NFL teams from 1964-1972, came out as gay in 1975 after his playing career concluded. Roy Simmons, a guard for the New York Giants and Washington Football Team from 1979-1983, came out on The Phil Donahue Show in 1992.
Esera Tuaolo was all too familiar with the NFL’s lapses in LGBTQ+ acceptance as he endured overhearing homophobic slurs and jokes thrown around locker rooms during his playing career from 1991-1999 before coming out on HBO Sports in 2002.
Ryan Russell, a defensive end who played for three teams from 2015-2018, came out as bisexual in an essay published by ESPN in 2019 while he was a free agent.
In the leadup to the 2014 NFL Draft defensive end Michael Sam from the University of Missouri publicly came out as gay during interviews with ESPN and the New York Times. Sam previously came out to his teammates at Missouri in August 2013. Sam was drafted by the then-St. Louis Rams in the 7th round, but didn’t make the final roster.
In addition to coming out, Nassib announced a partnership with The Trevor Project, an organization that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth. Nassib’s $100,000 donation to The Trevor Project was soon matched by the NFL itself.
Multiple current and former NFL players, coaches and others announced their support for Nassib, including former Penn State teammate and New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley, legendary former Raiders running back Bo Jackson, Raiders head coach Jon Gruden and President Joe Biden.
Messages of support for Nassib were widespread, but hateful comments are extant in modern sports. The United Soccer League’s San Diego Loyal walked off from a match against the Phoenix Rising in October 2020 after a player from Phoenix directed a homophic slur toward openly-gay Loyal midfielder Collin Martin.
The NFL as an organization, its players, fans and coaches have a bullhorn in their hands to help drown out any vitriol directed toward Nassib, and by extension LGBTQ athletes as a whole.
“I just think that representation and visibility are so important,” Nassib said. “I actually hope that, like, one day videos like this and the whole coming out process are just not necessary.”
Athletes like Kopay and Tualo came out after their playing careers out of a fear that they wouldn’t be accepted. The NFL must atone for this, and it starts with supporting current athletes such as Russell and Nassib.
Acceptance and support of Nassib is acceptance and support for every current and former athlete who hasn’t come out, and they’re all paying close attention. Nassib is the first, but the acceptance all LGBTQ+ athletes deserve will ensure he won’t be the last.
