Show an ad over header. AMP

Raiders' Carl Nassib becomes 1st active NFL player to come out as gay

21 June 2021
Dan Ackermann

Las Vegas Raiders player Carl Nassib becomes the first active NFL player in history to come out as gay on Monday.

Why it matters: The NFL has "plenty of" members of the LGTBQ community, but the vast majority are closeted due to fear that their identity will negatively impact their career, former NFL player Ryan O'Collaghan told Reuters in 2019.

What he's saying: "What’s up people," Nassib posted on Instagram. "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’m a pretty private person so I hope you guys know that I’m not doing this for attention. I just think that representation and visibility are so important," he said.
  • "I actually hope that one day, videos like this and the whole coming out process are not necessary, but until then I will do my best and my part to cultivate a culture that’s accepting and compassionate and I’m going to start by donating $100,000 to the Trevor Project," a suicide prevention service for LGBTQ youth in the U.S.

The big picture: Several former NFL players have come out as queer after retiring, according to Out Magazine.

  • "I think it's safe to say there's at least one on every team who is either gay or bisexual," said O'Callaghan, who published a book in 2019 that detailed the mental distress of passing for straight in the NFL.
  • Former running back Dave Kopay was the first major professional athlete to come out in any sport in 1975, three years after his retirement. He later encountered obstacles to becoming a coach due to his sexuality, the University of Washington Magazine reports.
  • In 2014, Michael Sam became the first openly gay player to be drafted by an NFL team, but he stepped away from football a year later for mental health reasons.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

Section2

Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.