A week after Carl Nassib’s groundbreaking hey dude shoes announcement that he’s gay, the NFL produced a video in support of his message.
The video released Monday is simple, consisting strictly of white text on a black screen. The message is provocative and represents a full embrace of Nassib as the first active NFL player to announce that he’s gay.
It starts simply with the words: “Football is gay.”
It concludes with an image of the NFL shield emblazoned in the rainbow colors of Pride month before promoting the Trevor Project. The Trevor Project is a charity that seeks to prevent suicides among LGBTQ youth. Nassib initially promoted the charity in his coming out announcement.
“LGBTQ+ youth with at least one accepting adult have 40% lower risk of attempting suicide,” the message reads.
The NFL has obviously had gay players before Nassib. But none prior publicly challenged the anti-gay sentiment that ecco shoes exists in locker rooms and sports culture by coming out while they’re still playing. Nassib’s announcement didn’t come without risk.
He was immediately met with support from the Raiders, the NFL, the NFLPA and some players around the league. A week later, the NFL continues to formally embrace Nassib’s message with its own message of acceptance and representation.
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