ZingJ

Carl Nassib didn’t do much in the way of media appearances after he came out as gay. Yet the then-Las Vegas Raiders defensive end spoke some powerful words during training camp one morning in August 2021, words that offer a self-help guide for anyone who’s thinking about making an announcement of their own.

“I was definitely surprised by the big reaction,” Nassib told a gathering of reporters. “It was incredible. I thought nobody would care. But it was just such a good feeling to have all the support. I was glad I could do my part to help bring visibility and representation to my community.”

It’s the thought-nobody-would-care part that merits examination. Here we had a 6-foot-7, 275-pound professional football player busting through his closet door — it’s a great visual, right? — so, yes, of course people cared.  But in opening one door, Nassib closed another one. Never an NFL star, never a big moneymaker, never a pitchman for car insurance, sneakers or body washes, Nassib needed to focus on the business of football, not sitting around talking about football. That is, being a gay guy playing football.

GO DEEPER

Carl Nassib retires from NFL after 7 seasons

Without much in the way of input from Nassib, then, fans and media did their best to put things in perspective. Most of the discussions were fine. Some of the discussions were dull and predictable, such as the chorus that always wants to know why is this news? (It’s news because athletes in professional male team sports seldom announce themselves as queer.)

And, yes, some of the discussions were anchored to well-intentioned but misguided tropes, such as the old chestnut holding that Nassib was “football’s Jackie Robinson.”

This one has bothered me for years, and for one simple reason: Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers at a time when not many big-league ballplayers had Black friends or relatives. Robinson, then, had no choice but to work from the ground up. Nassib, on the other hand, could have remained closeted throughout his career. He chose not to. But this in no way diminishes his contributions. It’s just that there are a greater number of laurels to be distributed. See, we can presume that many teammates of the newly out Nassib had LGBTQ+ people in their own family and social circles, thus providing them some life experience to bring to the table, which I’m guessing is precisely what happened.

Those life experiences by teammates helped Nassib. Because of that — and this is important — it appears Nassib’s career was about the same after he came out as before he came out. As he forged ahead, nobody asked to be traded and no fan group staged a boycott. Nassib played one more season for the Raiders and then returned to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, for whom he had played in 2018 and ’19.

To view his entire body of work, we see your basic NFL journeyman:  Two seasons with the Cleveland Browns, two seasons with the Raiders, three seasons with the Bucs. He appeared in 99 regular-season games, 38 of them starts. He never played on a Super Bowl winner, was never All-This or All-That, and never led the league in anything. (Though “Crazy Carl” would be in the Top 10 if we were ranking nicknames.)

New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick has an expression he likes to use: “Do your job.” As near as can be determined, Belichick has never rolled out that line at a Pride Day rally, or in concert with waving a rainbow flag. But we’ll borrow from Belichick and use it here, and for the simple reason that it’s precisely what Nassib did for seven productive seasons. He did his job. He made a living.

Nassib’s career reminds me of my dad, even though Bill Buckley never played a down of football in his life. “My job is to get up and go to work every day,” the longtime driver for Coyle Trucking liked to say, and Carl Nassib can say that as well.

Because Nassib did some of that work as an openly gay man, he has performed a valuable service. During a year in which NHL teams are wrestling with how to stage Pride nights and the Red Sox gave a big-league start to a pitcher whose old homophobic tweets were still warm in the oven, here’s this NFL player who came out of the closet and into the huddle.

Nassib’s next move, he said on Instagram, is to “focus on my company Rayze,” which its app describes as “a mobile platform that uses positive social media to simplify the way we give back.”

If the work he’s doing with the NFL helps bring about more awareness and diversity, so much the better.

But at the risk of being dismissed as too much the American capitalist, here’s hoping Nassib finds the time to cash in a little. A sneaker commercial, or maybe a Nationwide Insurance commercial with Peyton Manning and Brad Paisley. And come on: Tell me you can’t see Nassib in the title role next time there’s a “Jack Reacher” reboot.

Carl Nassib made the road less rocky for the next generation of LGBTQ+ athletes. All by just showing up and doing his job.

(Top photo: Mike Carlson / Getty Images)

ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57k3FqcmxpbHxzfJFsZmlxX2WDcK%2FAq6NmppGowKqujKucraGimrqmutNmqZqhlJq%2FtHnBrpqsZw%3D%3D