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Carl Nassib’s football team just did something beautiful

Carl Nassib
Carl Nassib (Photo: Twitter)

Carl Nassib’s football team, Las Vegas Raiders, has announced it will be donating $100,000 to the LGBTQ suicide prevention organization, the Trevor Project.

The sum matches the amount that Nassib himself said he was donating to the organization when he announced last summer via an Instagram video that he is gay. His coming out made him the first out gay, active player in the NFL.

Related: Carl Nassib: What you need to know about the first active NFL player to come out as gay

“The Raiders are proud to match Carl’s generous donation to support the Trevor Project and the important work this organization is doing to serve the LGBTQ community,” Raiders president Dan Ventrelle said in a statement to Outsports.

“Diversity, equality, and inclusion are core values of the Las Vegas Raiders, and we appreciate the effort that both Carl and the Trevor Project have put toward advancing these principles.”

The Raiders also posted a video of Carl Nassib reflecting on his coming out.

“That was a really exciting day for me,” Nassib said of his coming out posting. “I had wanted to do it for a really long time. I wanted to be in a place where I felt totally comfortable, totally confident to give a voice to people who really needed it the most.

“I was with my friends and family and it definitely was a stressful thing to do, but we were really excited to spread the message of the Trevor Project to bring visibility and representation to the NFL, to sports, and we did it for the youth, for the kids who are struggling the most. That’s who I’m most passionate about and to be able to say I helped them is absolutely incredible.”

Commenting on the Raiders donation, Nassib added that it was “incredible. I never expected them to match it and I think it’s beautiful.”

Related: Carl Nassib now has the top-selling jersey in the NFL

The video also included fellow Raiders player Alec Ingold talking about Nassib’s coming out. He said, “My initial reaction was ‘Wow, good for him,’” Ingold said.

“And then it started to sink in about how massive that was for so many other people looking for that voice, that blueprint. And for Carl to have the courage to do that, it took a little bit to sink in on the magnitude of what he did.”

 

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