Carl Nassib

Carl Nassib is a former American football outside linebacker who played in the NFL for seven seasons. Before the NFL, he played college football for the Pennsylvania State Nittany Lions where he earned unanimous All-American honors as a senior in 2015. He was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the third round of the 2016 Draft. He also played for the Las Vegas Raiders under a $25 million three-year contract before returning to Tampa Bay.

On June 21, 2021, Nassib announced publicly that he is gay, distinguishing him as the first openly gay active player in the National Football League’s 103-year history. He remains alone in this distinction in 2023. His announcement included a $100,000 donation to the Trevor Project (matched by the NFL), an organization dedicated to crises intervention and suicide prevention among LGBTQ youth. Nassib’s announcement was met with almost universal support, including from the NFL Players Association, the NFL and its team owners, current and former players, and the sports press. On the day of his announcement, jerseys, and t-shirts with his name were the top sellers among all NFL Players at Fanatics, a leading sports apparel company. Carl Nassib’s coming out story is historic and directly confronts one of the last bastions of entrenched homophobia, men’s professional sports.

After a moving experience while volunteering with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2019, Carl was inspired to build a mobile app where users could easily find ways to give back to causes they are passionate about. In July of 2022, Carl Nassib launched the first volunteer-based social media platform, Rayze. Rayze aims to connect nonprofits to the next generation of philanthropists. The number of donors and volunteers in America has decreased drastically over the last twenty years and charities are feeling the strain. Carl's goal with Rayze is to reverse that trend and increase impact throughout the nonprofit industry. Today with Rayze, users can turn social influence into social impact.