Lineman Becomes First Active Player in NFL History To Come Out as Gay

Defensive end Carl Nassib of the Las Vegas Raiders publicly announced he was gay on Monday, making him the first active NFL player to do so.

Nassib, 28, a former Penn State star who began his NFL career with the Cleveland Browns, made the announcement in an Instagram post.

“What’s up people? I’m at my house here in West Chester, Pennsylvania. I just want to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay,” the 6-foot-7, 275-pound lineman said without preamble 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. I really have the best life, I’ve got the best family, friends and job a guy could ask for,” he said.

Nassib said he thought it was important to make a private decision public.

“I’m a pretty private person so I hope you guys know that I’m really not doing this for attention. I just think that representation and visibility are so important,” he said.

“I actually hope that like one day, videos like this and the whole coming-out process are just not necessary. But until then, I’m going to do my best and do my part to cultivate a culture that’s accepting, that’s compassionate and I’m going to start by donating $100,000 to the Trevor Project,” Nassib said.

The Trevor Project is a national organization whose website says it provides “crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning (