National Football League
Art Shell, another groundbreaking Raider, joins flood of support for Carl Nassib
National Football League

Art Shell, another groundbreaking Raider, joins flood of support for Carl Nassib

Updated Jun. 22, 2021 7:51 p.m. ET

On Monday, Las Vegas Raiders defensive lineman Carl Nassib came out as the first openly gay active player in the NFL.

A day later, reactions across the sports world – and American culture in general – have been overwhelmingly positive, as support rolled in from current Hall of Famers, future Hall of Famers and many others.

But one of the more powerful – and perhaps most important – statements came from not only a Hall of Famer but also another groundbreaking Raider, Art Shell.

Shell, 74, was an offensive lineman who played all 15 of his seasons with the Raiders, starring on the rough-and-tumble teams of the '70s. He says Nassib would have fit in perfectly with those teams, which included hard-nosed players such as Ken Stabler, Jack Tatum and George Blanda. 

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"The Raiders have always been different and all about inclusion," Shell said Tuesday in an interview with Silver and Black Pride. "It makes sense that a Raiders player is the first to do so [come out]. I’m really happy for him and want him to know that he will always be a Raider, and we will always love and support him."

Shell, who became the NFL’s first Black head coach in 1989, says the man who hired him, then-owner Al Davis, would have fully supported Nassib.

"There is not a doubt in my mind that Al would be happy about this," Shell said. "He would have had nothing negative to say about it. He would have been thrilled that one of his own players was comfortable enough to do this."

In addition to being lauded by many high-profile figures, it appears that Nassib's announcement has resonated with the populace at large. 

Fanatics, the NFL’s official e-commerce partner, said Nassib merchandise has been the top-selling NFL gear across their network of online stores over the past two days, according to ESPN.

As to why Nassib’s announcement carries so much weight across society, Jenna Wolfe of FS1 provided some insight on "First Things First," relating it to a similar announcement she made a decade ago.

"What Carl did yesterday matters," she said. "If an announcement from a guy in the NFL can affect even one person who’s struggling to live his or her true life, one person who’s scared or nervous or feels trapped or lost ... then it was worth it."

On Monday, FOX Sports’ Martin Rogers wrote that Nassib’s announcement was significant, but that hopefully in the future, similar announcements will be more commonplace and accepted to the point that they won't garner much attention at all.

"The next time it happens — whether Nassib’s courage sparks a trickle of similar decisions to come out or it’s an outlier for now — it will be less newsworthy," Rogers wrote. "And less so the time after that, and so on, until one day, it won’t be news at all."

A day later, that appears to be exactly where things are trending.

"I’m just glad this young man feels so comfortable," Shell said. "This is good for football and for all of sports."

For more up-to-date news on all things NFL, click here to register for alerts on the FOX Sports app!

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