Carl Nassib's Raiders Jersey Displayed by Smithsonian to Honor Historic NFL Game

A new exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., is honoring former defensive end Carl Nassib as the NFL's first openly gay player to appear in a game.

The Smithsonian exhibit features the No. 94 jersey that Nassib wore with the Las Vegas Raiders in 2021 after becoming the first active NFL player to publicly come out as gay, per Sam Fortier of the Washington Post.

Nassib was wearing that jersey in Week 1 of the 2021 season, which marked his first regular-season contest after coming out as gay in a video posted to his Instagram that June.

He went on to record a strip sack of Lamar Jackson in overtime that led to the game-deciding touchdown of a 33-27 Raiders victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Sept. 13, 2021.

Nassib spoke with Ryan Clark on a May 7 episode of the Pivot Podcast about his upcoming feature at the Smithsonian.

"They reached out to me last year. They said, 'Hey, we would love to add this to our collection.' I said, 'Absolutely, this is huge,'" Nassib told Clark.

Nassib continued, "I can't wait for my family to go see it, all my friends to go see it. Again, it's like, this is a thank you to people that came before me. I really didn't do much for it. I was gifted these opportunities. I earned my spot as a football player, but I was gifted all these opportunities.

"And a big shout out to the museum for having that representation, and telling gay stories... I really appreciate the Smithsonian for saying, 'Hey, this is an important story. We want to make sure this gets remembered.'"

Nassib starred at Penn State before he was selected by the Cleveland Browns in the third round of the 2016 draft. He played seven NFL seasons for the Browns, Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers before announcing his retirement in September 2023.