First Openly Gay Active NFL Player Grosses Top-Selling NFL Jersey – Entrepreneur

June 23, 2021 2 min read

NFL player Carl Nassib made headlines this week when he was the first active NFL player to publicly come out as gay, receiving an astounding outpouring of support among everyone from his teammates to President Joe Biden.

The Las Vegas Raider’s defensive end made his decision to come out during Pride month via a video he posted to his Instagram account on Monday.

“I just want to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay,” Nassib said to his followers on the platform. “I’m a pretty private person, so I hope you guys know I’m not doing this for attention, but I think representation matters.”

During the clip, the pro athlete also said that he would be donating $100,000 to the Trevor Project, an nonprofit aimed towards suicide prevention among young LGBTQ community members, encouraging viewers to donate and learn more about the organization as well.

Nassib’s post was genuine and well received — and it reflected in sales of his game day garb.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter announced via Twitter that on Monday and Tuesday, Nassib’s jersey was the top-selling NFL Jersey on sportswear giant Fanatics’ website.

Raiders’ DE Carl Nassib is the top-selling NFL jersey across the @Fanatics’ network both yesterday and today.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) June 22, 2021

Though sizes appeared to be restocked by late Wednesday afternoon, it was reported that multiple sizes had sold out earlier in the week, directly after Nassib’s announcement.

ESPN confirmed the report with Fanatics.

“So nice to see society has changed,” one user responded to Schefter’s announcement. “This would have so many hate comments even just 2 years ago.”

“Love seeing the support for Carl Nassib,” said another. “Well done!”

Carl Nassib was the 65th pick overall in the 2016 NFL Drafter where he signed with the Browns. He’s since gone on to play for the Buccaneers starting in 2018 before ultimately signing with he Raiders in March 2020.