Former [Penn State](https://www.pennlive.com/pennstatefootball/) star Carl Nassib is having his jersey displayed at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. after becoming the first active NFL player to come out as gay and play in a game back in 2021.
Nassib revealed the news last month while [speaking with Ryan Clark](https://x.com/thepivot/status/1920238245847105882) on the _Pivot Podcast_.
The jersey Nassib wore during his first game after coming out as gay will be on display at the Smithsonian. He helped the Raiders to a win over Lamar Jackson and the Ravens in that game.
“Very excited to announce, so the jersey that I wore against the Ravens, my first game as an out player, will now be displayed at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in D.C.,” Carl Nassib said.
“They reached out to me last year. They said, ‘Hey, we would love to add this to our collection.’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’ Like, this is huge. You know, a little bit about me, I love museums, I love history, I love football and I love the gays. So this is a combination of everything. It really is.”
Carl Nassib starred at Penn State and was an All-American for the Nittany Lions before beginning his NFL career. He was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in 2015, before being drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the third round of the 2016 NFL Draft.
Nassib went on to play for the Las Vegas Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, before retiring in 2023.
He shared that his personality is usually reserved, but he is thrilled to be honored by the Smithsonian.
“I don’t get excited about a lot of things, but this is so dope. And I’m really excited. … I can’t wait for my family to go see it. Like, all my friends to go see it," Nassib said. A big shoutout to the museum for having that representation, telling gay stories, because history is not an accurate depiction of a sequence of events. It is actually curated stories. Like people choose what stories and how they get told subjectively. It’s not objective.
“So I really appreciate the Smithsonian for saying, ‘Hey, this is an important story. We want to make sure this gets remembered.’ Because there’s a lot of stories throughout gay history that don’t really get included. So I feel very thankful. That’s dope. I’m really pumped. I love D.C. I love the Raiders. And I just couldn’t be happier."