Who is Carl Nassib? Meet Raiders' DE who becomes NFL's first active gay player

Las Vegas Raiders DE Carl Nassib came out as gay to the public today via his Instagram account. This makes him the NFL's only openly gay player in the league.

Carl Nassib makes huge announcement on Instagram

In his video, he mentioned that he's "not doing this for attention, but I think representation matters". He also announced a donation of $100,000 to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit focused on LGBT youth suicide prevention.

Some people may call out Carl Nassib's label of the only openly gay player in the NFL by recalling Michael Sam. Sam came out prior to the 2014 NFL Draft but never made a regular season roster. There have been other NFL players coming out to the public once they retired. Carl Nassib will likely be looked at by the LGBT community as a face of hope and positivity as he is a known entity in the NFL and a household name.

The 28-year-old PA native and Penn State standout was originally drafted by the Cleveland Browns as a 2016 3rd-round pick. He earned the title of Big Ten DPOY and Consensus All-American in 2015. In his first ever NFL game, he recorded a sack, three tackles, a deflected pass and a nomination for Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Week. Tampa Bay picked him up off of waivers in September 2018, where he would go on to set career-highs with 6.5 sacks and 12 tackles for loss. In 2020, Carl Nassib signed a three-year contract worth $25 million with the Raiders.

You can learn more about the Trevor Project at https://www.thetrevorproject.org/