Column: Nassib coming out barely a blip for unbeaten Raiders

There are all sorts of storylines swirling around the Las Vegas Raiders.

They go into Sunday's game against Miami looking for their first 3-0 start in almost two decades. Quarterback Derek Carr is playing like an MVP. The defense is much improved.

Know something you don't hear much about?

Carl Nassib coming out.

Turns out, it didn't cause a major uproar or tear up the locker room when the Raiders defensive end became the first prominent male athlete playing in a major U.S. team sport — the NFL, no less — to reveal he is gay.

After decades of hang-wringing over the supposed negative impact a homosexual player would have on a team's chemistry, Nassib's brave announcement this past summer seems to have largely faded into the background.

“It's a big story, but it's not a story at all,” said Eric Anderson, a professor of sport masculinity and health at the University of Winchester in England.

Indeed, Nassib is just another valued player on a team that has big-time aspirations for 2021.

“Not one person, from my point of view, has treated him any different,” Carr said. “His locker is just a few down from mine, and I want to make sure that he knows that we just want him to play as hard as he can so we can win a Super Bowl.”

So, was Nassib's coming-out no big deal?

Of course not.

There's still plenty of homophobia in this world — and especially in men's team sports, where all sorts of nasty prejudices linger just beneath the surface.

Nassib and the Raiders are, hopefully, leading us toward a more tolerant locker room in all sports.

“He's challenging this idea that the identity of an athlete and the identity of an LGBTQ person do not mix and match,” said Yannick Kluch, director of outreach & inclusive excellence at Virginia...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Column-Nassib-coming-out-barely-a-blip-for-16484993.php