CARL NASSIB is an American football defensive end for the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Penn State Nittany Lions, earning unanimous All-American honors as a senior in 2015. Nassib was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the third round of the 2016 NFL Draft. He has also played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In 2021, Nassib became the first active NFL player to publicly come out as gay.
Nassib was selected by the Cleveland Browns in the third round of the 2016 NFL draft with the 65th pick. On June 28, Nassib signed a four-year contract worth about $3.2 million, with signing bonus worth approximately $890,000.
In his first game as a professional, against the Philadelphia Eagles, Nassib recorded one sack, three tackles, and one deflected pass, and earned a nomination for Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Week. He played in 14 games as a rookie and became a starter in 2017. Nassib was waived by the Browns in September 2018.
On September 3, 2018, Nassib was claimed off waivers by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He set career highs in both sacks (6.5) and tackles for loss (12) in 2018, both higher than his career totals in both categories going into the season. In two seasons with the Buccaneers, he started 17 games and totaled 12+1⁄2 sacks.
During Pride Month, on June 21, 2021, Nassib released a statement on his Instagram account stating that he is gay, becoming the first active NFL player to come out publicly. In the statement, he pledged to donate $100,000 to The Trevor Project, an organization dedicated to crisis intervention and suicide prevention among LGBTQ youth, and to continue to champion their work. He received public support from the NFL (which matched his contribution to the Trevor Fund), Raiders, Penn State, and current and former athletes. That day, jerseys and T-shirts with his name were the top sellers among all NFL players at Fanatics, the league's sales partner.
