Ayanbadejo has been paying attention to the reaction and has noticed a lot of people saying Nassib's announcement wasn't necessary and isn't newsworthy.
"I think we have to take the approach that it matters until it doesn't matter anymore," he said. "We get more progressive and more accepting as times goes by. I think we're trying to go from a point of tolerance to acceptance. They are two very different things.
"Like with Jackie Robinson being the first Black player in the MLB, Carl is going to be the first openly gay player to play in a regular-season game. Hopefully, we get to a point where it doesn't even register, but we're not there yet. These watershed moments, we have to celebrate and acknowledge them. Hopefully in 10 years, if there are a bunch of guys that are gay, we don't even talk about it. Maybe it's 10 years or maybe it's one year. I don't know, but the sooner the better."
Undrafted out of UCLA in 1999, Ayanbadejo clawed his way through the CFL, XFL and NFL Europe before landing in the NFL full-time in 2003. He reached his third Pro Bowl as a special teams ace in his first of five seasons as a Raven, and capped his career with a victory in Super Bowl XLVII.
Ayanbadejo said he saw locker rooms evolve in their attitudes toward LGBTQ+ issues during his decade in the NFL. He partly credited that to society as a whole seeing more LGTBQ+ representation in all areas of life – entertainment, politics, business. The more people that declare who they are, the more normalized and safter it becomes for other people to come out.
"I think the good thing about the NFL is it's really a young guys' sport and the younger players are a lot more accepting and understanding of the fight for equality for LGBTQ+," Ayanbadejo said.
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Brendon Ayanbadejo: Carl Nassib Is the 'Right Guy to Carry the Torch' - BaltimoreRavens.com
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