It was a like bolt of lightning to mark the beginning of Pride week: a professional football defensive end came out as gay while still an active player, a first.
For years there had been rumors of professional athletes who were going to come out, as our sportswriter Roger Brigham noted, yet none ever did until Carl Nassib, 28, who plays for the Las Vegas Raiders, made his announcement June 21 on his Instagram page.
Talk about refreshing: there was no media rollout, no huddling with GLAAD, and, especially, no immediate effort to monetize his news, like reality TV star Colton Underwood did when he tied his April "I'm gay" announcement to a Netflix special, complete with his friend, gay Olympian Gus Kenworthy, at his side.