Carl Nassib, First Openly Gay Active NFL Player, Returning To Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Linebacker Carl Nassib, who made history in 2021 as the first active NFL player to come out as gay publicly, is returning to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the 2022/2023 season.

Nassib announced he was gay in June of last year and received an outpouring of support from NFL and college football organizations.

Nassib’s announcement happened when he was playing for the Las Vegas Raiders, and he has previously played for the Bucs from 2018 until 2019 and the Cleveland Browns.

He also donated $100,000 to the LGBTQ charity The Trevor Project at the same time as coming out.

Nassib said in the video he was coming out because “I just think that representation and visibility are so important. I actually hope that like one day videos like this and the whole coming-out process are just not necessary, but until then I’m going to do my best and my part to cultivate a culture that’s accepting, that’s compassionate.

Michael Sam had also made history when he came out of the closet as gay before the 2014 NFL draft occurred.

He was subsequently selected by the St. Louis Rams but was released before being able to play a regular season game with them. Sam did eventually get a chance to play in the Canadian Football League when he was signed to the Montreal Alouettes.