3 gay football players featured NFL Network segment on Carl Nassib - Outsports

Contents:

• THREE GAY FOOTBALL PLAYERS FEATURED NFL NETWORK SEGMENT ON CARL NASSIB
• NEW YORK GAY FOOTBALL LEAGUE
• 8 MALE FOOTBALL PLAYERS WHO DARED TO COME OUT AS GAY

THREE GAY FOOTBALL PLAYERS FEATURED NFL NETWORK SEGMENT ON CARL NASSIB

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTRairs’ Carl Nassib Announc He’s Gay, an N.F.L.

FirstThe Rairs fensive leman me out a statement posted to his Instagram acunt on Monday, beg the first active player the league to publicly intify as gay.ViotranscripttranscriptCarl Nassib Be First Openly Gay Active N.F.L. I jt want to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay.

NEW YORK GAY FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Player to publicly clare that he is gay.“I jt want to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay,” Nassib said a vio posted to his Instagram acunt. I actually hope that like one day vios like this and the whole g-out procs are jt not necsary, but until then I’m gog to do my bt and my part to cultivate a culture that’s acceptg, that’s passnate,” before addg that he would donate $100,000 to The Trevor Project, a nonprof group that foc on suici preventn efforts among lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, queer and qutng youth.“Sadly, I have agonized over this moment for the last 15 years,” he wrote the same post.Nassib, a five-year N.F.L.

Players Associatn also said a Twter post that he and the unn supported Nassib.Nassib’s announcement, ma durg Pri Month, is a signifint turng pot for the N.F.L., and mak him the first openly gay active player the league’s 101-year history.“Sports are, many ways, one of the last bastns of a place where homophobia n thrive,” said Cathy Renna, a spokwoman for the Natnal L.G.B.T.Q. Athlet who me before him.”Michael Sam, an all-Amerin fensive leman at Missouri, had been viewed as the most likely to acquire that distctn when he announced he is gay before he beg chosen by the Rams the seventh round of the 2014 N.F.L. The Dallas Cowboys signed Sam to their practice squad, but he never played a regular season game.ImageCred...LM Otero/Associated PrsSam’s draft stat was seen as a barometer of whether the climate of men’s pro sports was beg more acceptg of gay athlet, particularly bee Febary 2014 the N.B.A.

8 MALE FOOTBALL PLAYERS WHO DARED TO COME OUT AS GAY

Had jt bee the first of the four tradnal major Amerin men’s sports leagu to have an openly gay active player when Jason Colls joed the Nets.But Sam left the N.F.L. Players had prevly announced publicly that they were gay, but all after their playg reers were over. David Kopay beme the first pro football player to publicly e out as gay 1975, three years after he retired.

He played for ne seasons wh the San Francis 49ers and four other teams the 1960s and 1970s, and has sce bee an activist and an ambassador for the Gay Gam, a quadrennial sportg event.Roy Simmons was the send former player to announce that he was gay, dog so 1992 after his reer wh the Giants and Washgton Football Team had end.

Simmons said he cultivated a reputatn for beg the life of the party, and had to partmentalize his football life and his personal life.Simmons also said he never would have clared himself gay durg the four seasons he played for the N.F.L. You are gladiators; you are male; you kick butt.”In recent years, the league has publicly supported Pri Month through promotnal efforts like changg official social media avatars to clu rabows and supportg the You Can Play Project, which provis rourc to enurage clivy youth sports, even as some players have ma rogatory statements about gay people wh ltle penalty or supported groups that oppose gay rights.ImageCred...Steve Wewerka for The New York TimIn 2013, Chris Culliver of the San Francis 49ers and Chris Clemons of the Seattle Seahawks ma offensive ments when asked about the prospect of havg a gay teammate.“Got no gay people on the team,” Culliver said. They were very ugly ments.”San Francis nng back Garrison Hearst apologized 2002 for g a slur and sayg he wouldn’t want a gay player as a teammate.