Carl Nassib looks out to fans during a Las Vegas Raiders game.Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty
Carl Nassibis retiring from the NFL after seven seasons in the league, he tells PEOPLE.
Formerly the captain of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the 30-year-old says “it was not an easy decision. It really, really wasn’t.”
Nassib, who became a free agent at the end of last season, explains, “This would have been my 23rd football season. I’ve been playing football since I was eight years old, and I’m really excited to move on to the next chapter of my life.”
Nassib says he began considering retirement last season, after he found himself “staying at the Bucs facility until 9 p.m. every night working on Rayze,” the app he founded that connects people with nonprofit organizations looking for volunteers and donations.
“I feel like it’s my calling and it’s what I’m meant to do,” Nassib says of the app. “I’m really excited to move on to the next chapter of my life and to give Rayze everything that I have.”
Nassib,who became the first openly gay active player in the NFL’s 103-year history when he publicly came out in 2021, will continue working with the National Football League on matters of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” and its philanthropic endeavors.
“I think that I can provide a very rare and specific view of how life is for an out gay player, and I think that there are some amazing opportunities that I can also learn,” he tells PEOPLE.
Las Vegas Raiders' Carl Nassib takes the field at Allegiant Stadium in Nevada.Ethan Miller/Getty
“Maintaining that relationship shows that the NFL is continuing to support me. They’ve supported me so much over the last two years, and I really couldn’t have done it without that support,” he says.
The Nassib hopes his forthcoming work with the league “continues to show people that you can be yourself and compete at the highest level.”
Nassib talked toPEOPLE in Oct. 2022 about thinking up the idea for Rayze five years earlier, when he was volunteering in Tampa at a juvenile detention facility located “half a mile from a team of millionaires” and “a family of billionaires” who could have been helping the kids.
“Nobody knew that these kids, 14-year-olds who were given Dr. Seuss books, were right there. So I left that day, and I was, like, ‘There needs to be an app,’ " he said at the time.
The success of Rayze has grown exponentially since its launch, so much so that the organization entered a new partnership with Volunteer Match.
Nassib tells PEOPLE now, “We let donors choose up to 1.8 million charities that they can donate to and have all of their donation receipts in one place. So when they go to tax season, they don’t have to find a million different emails to deduct from their tax returns. Now, partnering with Volunteer Match, we will have over 80,000 volunteering opportunities on Rayze later this year.”
While he anticipates missing the unique lifestyle of the NFL, Nassib says he’ll take his “football mentality of high energy and high morale” into his office as Rayze’s CEO. “There are a lot of parallels,” he says of leading morale as a team captain and leader of the company.
Defensive end Carl Nassib #94 of the Las Vegas Raiders smiles as he walks off the field after the team’s 35-32 overtime victory over the Los Angeles Chargers at Allegiant Stadium.Ethan Miller/Getty
Still, Nassib knows he’ll miss “the pursuit of excellence” that comes with competing for an NFL championship. “It is the most competitive job ever, and I feel like there are certain things that are only exclusive to the NFL,” he explains.
“You have to earn your keep every single day. You have to remain humble and hungry, and it’s really cool because everybody who’s in the locker room with you buys into that. I’ll definitely miss that. So I try and bring some of that into the corporate world, but it’s just not the same.”
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In addition to expanding Rayze, the retired athlete will also use his free time away from football to continue advocating for “more access to financial education and resources for professional and college athletes,” as a strong supporter of financial literacy.
Nassib said he hopes his story will inspire others to continue supporting theTrevor Project, a non-profit that offers vital support to young LGBTQ+ people, including crisis intervention, suicide prevention services and resources and guidance targeting mental health issues.
When he initially came out as gay, the NFL matchedhis $100,000 donation to the Trevor Project.
“The NFL went out of their way to support me, to support the Trevor Project, and to show how the impact of how one person doing something for others can be compounded,” Nassib told PEOPLE at the time.
Kevin Wong, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Communications and Content for the Trevor Project, said, “We’re so grateful to Carl for serving as a possibility model and source of light for so many LGBTQ young people, and for his ongoing commitment to LGBTQ youth suicide prevention. We’re excited to see Rayze’s impact grow to support even more nonprofits and amazing causes, which all need vocal and dedicated champions just like Carl.”
Carl Nassib donates $100,000 to the Trevor Project.Will Vragovic/Getty
“I left for Penn State as a walk-on in 2011, and I’ve spent 11 out of 12 Christmases away from my family, many of them alone in my apartment,” he tells PEOPLE.
“I haven’t spent Thanksgiving with my family since 2010, so I am really, really looking forward to spending time with my family, my friends, and those special moments. And that’s something that I’ve been looking forward to for years.”
source: people.com
