Las Vegas Raiders defensive lineman Carl Nassib has become the first active NFL player to publicly declare he is gay.
“I just want to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay,” Nassib said in a video posted to his Instagram account. “Sadly, I have agonised over this moment for the last 15 years.”
Nassib, a five-year NFL veteran who has also played with the Cleveland Browns and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, said he had been meaning to announce that he is gay for a while, but was finally “comfortable getting it off my chest.”
Nassib, 28, thanked his coaches, teammates and the NFL for their support.
“I would not be able to do this without them,” he wrote on Twitter.
Michael Sam, a defensive lineman who played college football at Missouri, announced he was gay before he was chosen in the seventh round of the 2014 draft. The Rams, then based in St Louis, cut Sam at the end of training camp. The Dallas Cowboys signed him to their practice squad, but he never played in a regular season game.
New York Times
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Source: | This article originally belongs to smh.com.au
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