In June 2021, former Penn State defensive end Carl Nassib realized there was something monumental as he came out gay on Instagram.
“What’s up people,” Nassib posted on Instagram. “I’m at my house in West Chester, Pennsylvania. I just wanted to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now, but finally feel comfortable getting it off my chest. I really have the best life, the best family, friends and job a guy can ask for.”
At that moment, Nassib became the first active NFL player to come out as gay.
Fast forward four years later, Nassib’s jersey is now on display in the Smithsonian Institute.
“It is one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced. I love it. And I wish I had some, you know, prophetic answer [about its significance]”, Nassib told Newsweek. “But I just feel maybe like, down the line, I’ll appreciate the importance of it a little bit more. Sometimes I feel like when you’re in it, you’re just super excited, and you don’t really get the full impact of it. And that’s kind of how I felt with football when I was playing, and I was just having fun.
“And now looking back, I was like, ‘Oh, wait, that was really, really incredible.’ But to have my jersey in the Smithsonian is something I never expected, something I never really worked for, wasn’t really a goal of mine.”
Nassib came to Penn State as a walk-on from the Malvern Prep Academy in Malvern, PA.
Nassib did not become a full time starter until his senior season where he set the Penn State record for most sacks in a season with 15.5. For his exceptional play, Nassib was an unanimous All-American, a finalist for the Burlsworth Award (nation’s top walk on, won by Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield), and won the Lombardi, Lott IMPACT, Ted Hendricks, and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Awards.
Nassib was a third round pick by the Cleveland Browns in the 2016 NFL Draft.
After spending two seasons in Cleveland, Nassib had three more stops in the NFL with two stints with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2018-2019; 2022) and Las Vegas Raiders (2020-2021).
You can read about Nassib’s jersey at the Smithsonian here.
