Las Vegas Raiders’ Carl Nassib, the first active NFL player to come out publicly, has designed a pair of American Football cleats to raise money for LGBT+ organisation, The Trevor Project.
The defensive end and Cleveland Browns’ fullback Johnny Stanton have designed footwear featuring LGBT+ colours for the NFL’s annual My Cause, My Cleats initiative.
Founded in 2016, the initiative helps NFL players fundraise for their favourite causes by auctioning off their bespoke creations.
Carl Nassib chose the crisis support organization The Trevor Project and his cleats feature rainbow-coloured fabric eyelets alongside the orange logo and the slogan “Protect LGBTQ+ Lives.”
The ankle of the custom kicks even displays the full phone number for the Trevor Project 24/7 call line, which serves LGBT+ youth in crisis.
LGBT+ ally Stanton chose to support Athlete Ally, which advocates for queer inclusion in sports.
Getting to work with @athleteally to have these cleats designed by @sq_customs was extremely special. It means a lot to me to be a visible ally to the LGBTQIA+ community. I appreciate the @clevelandbrowns for supporting me in the cause to end homophobia and transphobia in sports. pic.twitter.com/5oTlzXoB82
— Johnny Stanton (@johnnystantoniv) December 11, 2021
Carl Nassib feels ‘obligation’ to LGBT+ community
Carl Nassib has continuously spoken out about LGBT+ rights and inclusion in sports since he came out in June.
The NFL star said on Darren Waller’s Comeback Stories podcast that he felt an “obligation” towards the LGBT+ community to “bring visibility to a very, very popular entertainment business” that “doesn’t have a lot of representation”.
Earlier this year, Nassib opened up about his decision to come out publicly and insisted he wasn’t “really trying to break any barriers”.
The 28-year-old explained that “coming out as gay is something that, for a while, I wanted to do” but he had been forced to wait for the “right moment”, because “2020 was such a mess”.
Speaking in October about how his teammates reacted to him coming out, he stated he got a “great” reception from his fellow players.
He told reporters he had known their reaction was “going to be good” as he said: “I had zero stress about that. Absolutely no worries about that.”
The sportsman stated that he received “nothing but love and support” from his “great teammates”.
“Football players get a bad rep, but we’re humble, hardworking, accepting people, and this is a great example of that,” Nassib added.