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Carl Nassib would love nothing more than to see you on his new app.
Nassib became the first active NFL player to come out last year, and what a year it’s been for him. Shortly after speaking his truth in an Instagram video, he took to the field and forced a fumble during overtime that allowed his Las Vegas Raiders to claim victory. Double win!
Related: Meet Justine Lindsay, the NFL’s first openly trans cheerleader
Then in March of this year, the Raiders let him go. There’s no suggestion this had anything to do with Nassib’s sexuality. Luckily, five months later, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers signed him to a one-year contract and he was back in the game.
As he’s navigated the twists and turns of competing at the highest level of professional sports, the self-described “private person” has also had to manage the spotlight that came with his decision to live authentically. But he’s had plenty of help on that front, starting with the Raiders surprise move to match his $100K donation to The Trevor Project.
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“The NFL went out of their way to support me, to support the Trevor Project, and to show how the impact of how one person doing something for others can be compounded,” he recently told People.
It’s in that spirit of kindness — from teammates and fans alike — that Nassib has fully committed to his latest venture, because “since coming out last year, no one has experienced more kindness than me.”
Related: Trey McBride becomes first NFL player open about having same-sex parents
The 29-year-old has launched a new app called Rayze, seeking to unleash the same pay-it-forward success he’s experienced this past year.
Rayze matches users with local non-profits to make giving back as easy and rewarding as possible. People can choose to donate their time through volunteering or help meaningful community organizations stay funded.
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Nassib says the idea came to him while volunteering at a juvenile detention facility just down the road from a wealthy community.
“It was half a mile from a team of millionaires, and a family of billionaires,” he explained to People. “And nobody knew that these kids, 14 year olds who were given Dr. Seuss books, were right there. So I left that day, and I was, like, ‘There needs to be an app…'”
And lest you think Rayze can’t also be a dating app, Nassib offered this suggestion: “Say, you have a Saturday afternoon, a Sunday morning to kill, you want to go on a date with somebody and you don’t, you don’t want to go get a coffee for the millionth time. You don’t want to get a drink for the millionth time. So, ‘Hey, why don’t we just go pick up garbage?’ Or ‘why don’t we, like, hand out lunches somewhere as our first date, as a way to give back?'”
If we can get the coffee to go on the way to volunteering, we’re sold.
Related: Michael Sam is returning to football, but probably not where you’d expect
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G-Man
Not a bad idea at all, good job.
Kangol2
Great idea. Very glad he’s doing this.
Barefootboyz
If he is still a tRump supporter then no thanks
EdHusky
He votes republican. He is two faced in my playbook.
Fahd
Yes, that CNN guy is a turn-off, and supporting the great lie is unacceptable, but is there any evidence of Nassib’s recent support for the Count of Mostly Crisco?
An openly gay player in the NFL doing positive stuff deserves the community’s support. You have to take the bad with the good.
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Sad to see people in here make their decision of liking him or not based on the fact that he voted for Trump. So did about half of the country. Energy independence, no Russian aggression, no inflation, no trans boys competing with girls in sports, an actual border that didn’t just let millions of people march into the country…not to mention the increase in Fentanyl literally killing more people every year than car accidents. If he is a good person, you can still disagree with his politics without cancelling him.