Meet Carl Nassib, the first openly gay active NFL player: the Las Vegas Raiders defensive end came out as LGBT in an Instagram post applauded by Joe Biden
Carl Nassib, 28, who plays defensive end for American football team Las Vegas Raiders, came out as gay last week on Instagram, making history as the first NFL player to make such an announcement while still playing.
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“I just wanted to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay,” he said. “I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now but I finally feel comfortable enough to get it off my chest.”
Nassib went on to add that he isn’t doing this for attention, and pointed out that “representation and visibility is important”.
Putting his words into action, he donated US$100,000 to the Trevor Project, a US non-profit that aims to prevent suicide among the LGBTQ+ community.
As the first openly gay active NFL player, who is Carl Nassib on and off the field?
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He has a successful American football career
Nassib currently plays for the Las Vegas Raiders, and previously for the Cleveland Browns and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In university, he played for Penn State’s Nittany Lions, becoming a starter in his last year in 2015. That season, Nassib won the Lombardi Award (awarded to university American football’s best lineman or linebacker) and the Ted Hendricks Award (the country’s best defensive end).
In March 2020, he signed a three-year, US$25 million contract with the Las Vegas Raiders.
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He’s financially literate
Nassib has a penchant for finance, and told CNBC he uses index funds to invest. His interest began after he was drafted by the NFL in 2016.
His financial literacy led him to teach his teammates. In an episode of the HBO documentary series Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Cleveland Browns, he spoke about compound interest, which, he said, is the easiest equation to make you rich.
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He believes in aliens
In the same documentary, he told his teammates that a former “Canadian prime minister of defence” had said that the US is in contact with three different alien species.
According to Sports Illustrated, Nassib was referring to Canada’s ex-defence minister Paul Hellyer (who held that office in the 1960s) who claimed in an interview with RT in 2014 that aliens have been visiting Earth for thousands of years.
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His mum co-founded a philanthropic organisation
Nassib’s mother, Mary Fischer-Nassib, co-founded a philanthropic organisation, Sow Good Now. “We engage high-performing character athletes so they can give back to communities and inspire the younger generation to be more like them,” Fischer told The American College of Financial Services in an interview. Nassib notes that he volunteers for the organisation on his LinkedIn page.
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He loves interacting with people
In a 2019 interview with football site Buccaneers, Nassib said he loves meeting new people.
When Nassib was eating at Chipotle, a Mexican fast food chain in the US, back in university to gain weight, he met a little girl named Abby who was a fan. He chatted with her and the interaction touched her mum. She went to a couple of his games, and according to Nassib, now their mums keep in touch.
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- Nassib won the Lombardi Award and Ted Hendricks Award in 2015 in university, and played previously for the Cleveland Browns and Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- He donated to the Trevor Project non-profit that aims to prevent suicide in the LGBTQ+ community while his mum Mary Fischer-Nassib co-founded Sow Good Now