The Los Angeles Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib took to Instagram on Monday to announce that he is gay, making him the first ever active NFL player to come out as gay.
In the announcement, Nassib said, "What's up people? I'm at my house here in West Chester, Pennsylvania. I just want to take a quick moment to say that I'm gay. I've been meaning to do this for a while now, but I finally feel comfortable enough to get it off my chest. I really have the best life, I've got the best family, friends and job a guy could ask for."
Nassib would go on to say, "I'm a pretty private person so I hope you guys know that I'm really not doing this for attention. 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 do my part to cultivate a culture that's accepting, that's compassionate and I'm going to start by donating $100,000 to the Trevor Project."
The Trevor Project is a non-profit organization founded in 1998, which has become the No. 1 suicide-prevention institution in the United States for assisting LGBTQ youth.
Nassib's decision to make such an announcement is certainly a courageous one as people among the LGBTQ community struggle to gain acceptance. Having a professional athlete publically come out may provide others the strength to do so and shows young athletes that opportunities to compete at the highest level aren't just limited to individuals of a specific sexual orientation.
Nassib signed a three-year, $25 million deal with the Raiders last offseason with $16.75 million guaranteed. He was a third-round draft pick of the Cleveland Browns back in 2016.
Whenever a player from the 2016 draft class makes news, I always wonder how close the Dallas Cowboys were to selecting him. Thanks to the resourceful staff at SB Nation's Blogging the Boys, who I just so happened to be writing for at the time, we were able to piece together the team's draft board from a war room selfie that was inadventently shared on social media.
Over that weekend, we did our best to fill in all the names the Cowboys had on their board and you can see those results by clicking here. In all, the Cowboys had 149 names listed on their board, but one name that wasn't there was Carl Nassib.
To be clear, there are a lot of names on that board that were not legible, so I can't speak with certainty that he wasn't actually on the board. He could've been. I will point out though that out of the 92 players the Cowboys had on their board through the first four rounds, only three names were illegible. Nassib was the second player selected in the third round, so if the Cowboys did in fact have him on their radar, he was one of those three inegible names or he was graded out in the fifth round or later.
It would not be surprising if the Cowboys front office wasn't interested in Nassib as he lacked the one quality the team heavily prioritized in their defensive end targets that year - athleticism. If you look at all the edge rushers on the Cowboys board, you'll find it laced with super-athletic players (spider charts courtesy of mockdrafttable.com).
The defensive end the Cowboys ended up selecting was Oklahoma's Charles Tapper who, as you can see, had some super-fantastic athletic measurables.
Looking at Nassib, his athleticism wasn't his strong suit, which was a big knock on him entering the draft.
The Cowboys were looking for a certain type of player, and Nassib didn't posses nearly the athleticism as these other players. Obviously, athleticism isn't the only criteria for establishing an NFL career, which is pretty evident by Charles Tappers short-lived career (just two NFL games) compared to Nassib.
Nassib's recent anouncement will undoubtedly bring him a lot of additional attention. Of course, if he was a member of the Cowboys, this extra exposure wouldn't be so contrasting as the Cowboys organization is always a media circus. In 2014, Michael Sam became the first publically gay player to be drafted in the NFL when the then St. Louis Rams selected him in the seventh round. Unfortunately, he didn't make the team as the Rams released him during their final round of roster cuts. The Cowboys signed Sam to their practice squad a few days later, but he was cut the following month and never actually played a down in the NFL.
With Sam, his ability was his biggest obstacle whereas Nassib has earned his place in this league, racking up 20.5 sacks and 142 total tackles through five NFL seasons. And while he might've not been a good fit for the silver and blue, he's fitting in quite well with the silver and black.
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