Carl Nassib of the Las Vegas Raiders celebrates as he walks off the field after the team’s victory over the Miami Dolphins on 26 September 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Getty/Ethan Miller)
Las Vegas Raiders’ Carl Nassib, the first active NFL player to come out publicly, has revealed he is dating an “awesome guy”.
The football star opened up about his love life to his teammate Darren Walker and his co-host Donny Starkins on their Comeback Stories podcast.
Nassib shared he was “really jealous of people who went through life as being somebody else’s number one priority” and wanted to experience that for himself.
“That’s just the one thing I wanted,” Nassib said. “And I couldn’t have that, so that was the one thing, I was like, ‘Man I really f***ing want that’.”
But it all turned out fine in the end because Nassib has met an “awesome guy” who is “the best”.
Carl Nassib also opened up about his decision to come out publicly in June. He said he wasn’t “really trying to break any barriers” and that “coming out as gay is something that, for a while, I wanted to do”.
He explained how he was waiting for the “right moment”, and that he initially planned to come out last year but “2020 was such a mess”.
Because of COVID-19 measures, Nassib wasn’t allowed to hang out with teammates outside of work. As a result, he didn’t know anyone on the team and “didn’t really have a vibe for it” so delayed coming out publicly.
“I wanted to make sure that the guys I went to work with every single day were good dudes, were accepting dudes,” Nassib explained.
“What other f**king gay dude has to come out to his entire f**king business”
“I did it because I felt an obligation to the LGBTQ community”
Carl Nassib opens up about coming out on the Comeback Stories pod with @Rackkwall83 and @DonnyStarkins pic.twitter.com/CzuTKKLE9O
— Blue Wire (@bluewirepods) September 30, 2021
He said his decision was also rooted in an “obligation” he felt towards the LGBT+ community to “bring presentation and bring visibility to a very, very popular entertainment business” that “doesn’t have a lot of representation”.
“I felt a huge obligation to my community, to all the young kids out there who are struggling with their sexuality,” Nassib said. “If I could just help a few of them out, then I really could sleep better at night.”
