Out NFL Player Carl Nassib Just Wants to Play Ball

Carl Nassib continues to make headlines as the first active NFL player to come out of the closet. To him, though, being gay is just who he is; on the field, it's all about the game.

That's the upshot of a new interview Nassib gave Men's Health.

The publication recalled how Nassib "completed a strip sack leading the Las Vegas Raiders to a week-one win over the Baltimore Ravens" in a move that was "a thrilling play and an impressive show of athleticism from the defensive lineman."

That single play also put the lie to one of sport's most persistent myths: That an openly gay pro football player would be a disaster who "would divide the team and sow chaos; the fear was so pervasive it became known as the distraction myth.

"Yet in one swift play – with 15.3 million people watching at home, marking ESPN's most viewed season opener in nearly a decade – Carl Nassib vanquished the ghost."

Nassib acknowledged that his performance is likely to be judged on stricter criteria than that of ostensibly heterosexual players. "Imagine I ruined it for everyone?" he commented to the magazine. "Like, I let up a touchdown or something. And people were like, Go back in the closet! That could have been horrible."

At the same time, though, Nassib made it clear that it's not his sexuality that's his mind when he's doing his job. "I felt really lucky that I could be on a big stage and, like, make a good play while representing the community," he allowed. "To be the first out player in a game and then to win. That's sick, that's fucking cool.

"But I go out with the same mentality every game, just trying to beat the shit out of the team across from me," the history-making player added. Putting it plainly, Nassib stated that he's "a football player who is gay," and posited that, "I don't think that straight players are thinking, Oh, I'm straight and I'm playing this game."

PEOPLE Magazine, reporting on the interview, noted that Nassib had copped to some pre-coming out anxiety.

"When I came out, it was like, 'This is gonna fucking suck,' " Nassib recalled to Men's Health. "Because all anyone's gonna remember about me is that I'm gay."

If so, he added, that's their problem – not his.

"I was born this way," Nassib stated. "I haven't worked for it. That's why it's easy for me. It's not even on my mind. I don't choose every day to be gay. I choose to work hard and be a better person than I was yesterday.

"Doing interviews like this is not my favorite thing," the 29-year-old added. "I don't want to ever feel like, 'Oh, I'm hiding from something.' I'm not hiding from shit."

The interview, PEOPLE noted, was "only his second since coming out," and Nassib was only doing it to help keep attention on a cause he's supported form the start: The Trevor Project, which works to counter societal prejudice and prevent suicide among vulnerable LGBTQ+ youth.

"It crushed me to hear the stats on young LGBTQ kids and how they're nearly five times more likely to attempt suicide," Nassib said. "And that if they just have one accepting adult – just one person to say, like, 'Hey, I got your back' – it cuts their chances of hurting themselves by 40 percent."

And while he's not necessarily hiding his personal life – he hasn't been shy about appearing in photos posted online by Olympic champion swimmer Soren Dahl, whom social media users speculate is his boyfriend – Nassib is also not volunteering information about it.

Then again, why should he? His mind is on the game, like that of any other NFL pro.