Carl Nassib, the only pro-football player to come out as gay while playing in the NFL, took to his Instagram today to declare his support for Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
Nassib was born in Pennsylvania (note: super-important battleground state) and played college football for the Penn State Nittany Lions, earning unanimous All-American honors as a senior in 2015. He went on to play in the NFL for the Cleveland Browns as well as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Las Vegas Raiders.
In his social media post today, Nassib addressed his “PA family” announcing he is supporting Harris for president.
“This election I am supporting Kamala Harris for president,” Nassib wrote. “She has been a champion for people like me her entire career and her accolades speak for themselves.”
“I hope we can all come together no matter the outcome and remember to see each other for our humanity and know that we have much more in common than we realize,” he added while noting the end of the election also means no more “robo calls and texts anymore so… silver lining:)”
The comments on his post were overwhelmingly positive.
Nassib came out publicly on June 21, 2021, becoming the first-ever active out gay player in the NFL. At the same time, he pledged to donate $100,000 to The Trevor Project, the crisis intervention and suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ youth, and to continue to champion their work.
He immediately received public support from the NFL, the Las Vegas Raiders (who he was playing for at the time), Penn State, and countless current/former athletes. The day of his announcement, jerseys and T-shirts bearing his name were the top sellers among all NFL players. He announced his retirement from pro-football in September 2023.
Active NFL players don’t tend to step into presidential politics. You have probably heard the phrase “Keep politics out of sports” in the past few years. Rule 5, Section 4, Article 8 of the NFL rulebook specifically prohibits players from wearing gear with any sort of political of political message.
However, Nick Bosa of the San Francisco 49ers raised eyebrows last month when he crashed an on-field, postgame interview of his fellow players wearing a white Make America Great Again (MAGA) hat.
