In an NFL (National Football League) game on Monday night, September 13, Nassib helped the Las Vegas Raiders on their way to victory against the Baltimore Ravens with a score of 33-27.
This nail-biter of a match became the Raiders’ third straight season-opening win and was clinched in overtime by a game-changing fumble caused by Nassib.
According to CNN, he described the atmosphere in the stadium was “bananas” and said that the team “loved the enthusiasm from fans”.
He also humbly told reporters that he was happy the team got to win on the “day I kind of made a little bit of history”.
Jon Gruden, head coach of the Raiders, even seemed to imply that Nassib will be playing again in future games, USA Today reported. He said that the team will “need him here obviously as we move forward” in the season and that he had a “great training camp”.
The defensive lineman and six-year league veteran first made history back in June when he came out in a moving Instagram video. He was the first active NFL player to come out as gay and his announcement was met with an overwhelmingly positive response.
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“I was definitely surprised by the big reaction,” Nassib said to ESPN. “It was incredible. I thought nobody would care.”
On the reaction of his NFL teammates to his coming out, Nassib said, “I had zero stress about that.” He went on to say that he received “nothing but love and support” from his “great teammates”.
“Football players get a bad rep, but we’re humble, hardworking, accepting people, and this is a great example of that.”
In his coming out video, Nassib announced that he would be donating $100,000 to The Trevor Project, an American nonprofit dedicated to suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning youth.
In a supportive response, the NFL then announced that they would match his donation to the charitable cause and they released a Pride Month ad declaring “Football is Gay.”
“I had a lot of people come before me in the LGBTQ community that helped me get to where I am, and I’m super thankful for that,” Nassib said.
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