History-Making Carl Nassib Reflects as His Jersey Heads to the Smithsonian
On Monday, June 21, 2021, though, there was an unexpectedly historic piece of NFL news.
Carl Nassib, a member of the Las Vegas Raiders, had shared a post on Instagram. And rather than showing off a new car or sharing platitudes, he was making an 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."
At that moment, he became the first active NFL player to come out as gay. And now, nearly four years later, his Raiders jersey will be heading to Washington, D.C., to take its place in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
"It is one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. I love it. And I wish I had some, you know, prophetic answer [about its significance]", Nassib told Newsweek. "But I just feel maybe like, down the line, I'll appreciate the importance of it a little bit more. Sometimes I feel like when you're in it, you're just super excited, and you don't really get the full impact of it. And that's kind of how I felt with football when I was playing, and I was just having fun.
"And now looking back, I was like, 'Oh, wait, that was really, really incredible.' But to have my jersey in the Smithsonian is something I never expected, something I never really worked for, wasn't really a goal of mine.
"It's just something that came up and I'm super thankful for. I think it's an homage to all the people in my community that came before me that put me in a position to be able to come out and be able to play the sport that I love and be who I was all day every day."
But as any sports fan can tell you, no major accomplishment happens in the blink of an eye. There's usually plenty that happened behind the scenes, far from the big-money contracts and adoring fans.
Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty
From Walk-On to the NFL
On the athletic side of things, Nassib found himself in good company. Both his parents were college athletes, and his older brother, Ryan, played college football at Syracuse before being drafted by the New York Giants in 2013.
Carl's road to the pros, however, was a little different. Without any offers from big-time football programs, he walked on at Penn State. Despite some bumps in the road—Nassib didn't play during his first two years on campus and, as recounted on The Pivot Podcast, head coach Bill O'Brien said that him even making the scout team would be a miracle—his confidence never wavered.
"I think it came down to a few things. I think the first thing was positive self-talk. I just had a very innate drive to succeed," Nassib said. "I just always felt like winning was something that I was supposed to do. And I hate losing more than I like winning. Second was, I just had a really good support group from my older brother and my dad. There were a lot of times throughout my football career that I just wanted to say, 'Hey, I'm done. My coaches aren't playing me. My team stinks. Whatever it is, I'm just going to do something else.' And having that motivating factor, you need people to say, 'Hey, don't give up. This stinks right now, but you got to keep going.'
"And the third piece was that my older brother was also a D1 football player and in the NFL. So, it was cool to always look up to him and to compete with him a little bit."
Eventually, things turned around, and the Pennsylvania native's conviction was justified. Playing time was no longer hard to come by, and his stats started piling up. In 2015, he earned All-American, All-Big 10 and Big 10 Defensive Player of the Year honors; he also took home three national awards (the Rotary Lombardi Award, the Lott Trophy and the Ted Hendricks Award). Perhaps most importantly, Nassib had shown enough to follow in his brother's footsteps and be drafted into the NFL.
If that was the end of the story, it would be worth telling from an underdog perspective. In Nassib's case, though, football wasn't the be-all and end-all.
Coming Out and Making History
"For a long time, just football was my own, my only priority being the best that I could be," Nassib explained. "When I started succeeding in football and I started getting really good and I was getting to the top, like, I kind of wanted to share life successes with somebody. And I was like, you know, 'I want to make sure that like, I'm with who I want to be with.' "
By the time he took to Instagram in 2021, Nassib had already come out to those closest to him. That provided a valuable touchstone for sharing his true self with the wider world.
"Definitely coming out to my friends and family earlier, like before coming out publicly, that made it so much easier," the former Raider remembered. "I mean, a lot more fun and, just, it became a celebration. Once you come out to your core group of people, then it gets kind of easier and easier and you can turn it into a celebration. A lot of people, when they're coming out of the closet, they feel like it's like going to be a devastating moment.
"They feel that it's going to be cataclysmic and that they're going to lose friends, but actually it's the opposite. When you come out, it's a time for celebrating because you can actually be your whole self with your friends and family and you never have to keep anything from them again. And so that's just something I tell people all the time that 'Hey, it's a celebration and it's not really as scary as you think it is.'"
That brings us to the 2021 Instagram post that changed everything.
Commissioner Roger Goodell issued a statement saying the NFL was proud of Nassib; then-president Joe Biden tweeted out his congratulations. The announcement was the talk of the sports world.
To Carl Nassib and Kumi Yokoyama – two prominent, inspiring athletes who came out this week: I'm so proud of your courage. Because of you, countless kids around the world are seeing themselves in a new light today. — President Biden Archived (@POTUS46Archive) June 23, 2021
But, you may be wondering, why use a simple social media post for such a big announcement? Fittingly, it was an authentic way to share some personal news that, while important, was still a piece of a larger life.
"I just thought that was authentic to me. I thought that I am a million other things, you know what I mean? I'm a football player that happens to be gay," Nassib said. "I didn't want it to feel like it was some massively dramatic moment. It was like, 'Hey, this is who I am. You know, we're keep it moving.' I do a lot of things. And I wanted to show like, 'Hey, I'm in a great place in my life. I have the best life that I possibly can.'"
There was more to the post than just his announcement, though. Nassib also made a donation to The Trevor Project, a nonprofit that provides suicide prevention and crisis intervention for LGBTQ+ young people and used his caption to bring attention to their cause.
"I knew that a lot of people would be hearing about it," he explained. "So, I wanted to make sure that I put some of that attention toward The Trevor Project. There's a lot of ways to stifle a group of people. You can convert them, you can criminalize them, you can erase them from history, and then you can make life so tough for them that when they're kids, they want to hurt themselves. So, the Trevor Project provides services. They train, hire and support the people that answer those phone calls every single day."
And that wasn't a one-time thing, either. Nassib and Peggy Rajski announced a pick during the 2024 NFL draft on behalf of The Trevor Project; Nassib has also joined the board of directors.
A few months after his Instagram announcement, the Raiders opened the 2021 campaign on Monday Night Football. Nassib's black jersey from that night is now displayed for all to see in Washington, D.C.
More Than Just a Museum Exhibit
When fans think of someone who's played professional sports at the highest level, it's easy to think they've seen and done it all. That's not the case for Nassib, at least when it comes to his journey to the Smithsonian.
"I don't get hyped up for things. And I am so jazzed about this. I love museums. I love football," he explained. "I mean, damn, it's really, really cool. That they thought it was a good piece. It was a good story."
But there's more to it than just a good story. Enshrining something in a museum means it becomes part of the discourse.
"And what people forget is that history isn't just an objective point of view. It's actually just what's get it's just what gets told," he added. "The Smithsonian is doing a good job of curating good stories that, you know, speak to all different walks of life in America, because we are a big melting pot. And so, I do really appreciate the Smithsonian standing by that mission, telling stories that matter."
With pro football behind him, Nassib has other focuses. In addition to sitting on Trevor Project's board, he's also the founder and CEO of Rayze, which aims to provide "an easier way for people to give back" by connecting corporations, nonprofits and volunteers. Nassib has a growth mindset; striving to make a difference on the gridiron has given way to making a difference in the wider world.
His jersey being preserved as a piece of American history can be a piece of that puzzle.
"I hope that next month during Pride Month--it's World Pride is in D.C.--a lot of people go see it," Nassib said. "And hope they can draw some inspiration that you can really do whatever you want in this life, because we really only have one go of it in this world. People forget that you don't get a redo. You have one life, and you've got to really do the most with it."
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