Former Browns player Carl Nassib is a trailblazer

Former Cleveland Browns defensive end Carl Nassib announced Monday that he is gay and becomes the first active player in the NFL to come out

It really is unfortunate that it took until 2021 for a player to feel comfortable enough to admit this, but former Cleveland Browns and current Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib announced on his Instagram account Monday that he’s gay.

Nassib, who was drafted in the third round of the 2016 NFL Draft by Cleveland, said he’s “agonized over this moment for the last 15 years” before thanking his coaches and the NFL for their support.

The Raiders ended up responding by putting screenshots of Nassib’s post and saying they were proud of him. The NFL showed their support as well, re-posting his video on their official Twitter account and saying that their family is proud as well.

This announcement by Nassib is huge in that it could open the door for others to feel comfortable enough to be themselves, which is something he’s striving for saying his goal is not to put attention on himself but to help raise visibility for the LGBTQ community as a whole.

In addition to his announcement, Nassib pledged to donate $100,000 to the Trevor Project with is a suicide prevention organization aimed at helping LGBTQ youth.

As for his time with the Browns, many fans will remember Nassib mostly for his entertaining role in HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks’ where he got into a verbal spat with former offensive coordinator Todd Haley as well as giving the team an entertaining lesson on finances which was filled with another F — which Baker Mayfield hilariously recreated.

Despite not wanting attention, Nassib is about to get a lot. But the end result will be worth it if it makes others in his profession feel safe enough to be themselves. And if ‘Hard Knocks’ is any indication, he’s going to handle that attention with class and humor.