In 2017, Scott Frantz publicly came out as gay, joining My-King Johnson as two of the first openly gay players in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. In August 2014, Arizona State player Chip Sarafin became the first publicly out active Division I player when he came out as gay. In college football, Division III player Conner Mertens came out as bisexual in January 2014, becoming the first active college football player at any level to publicly come out as bisexual. He became the first publicly gay player to play in the Canadian Football League in August 2015. Louis Rams in the 2014 NFL Draft, and thus became the first publicly gay player drafted in the league, but was released before the start of the regular season. Six former NFL players have come out publicly after they retired. There has been only one player who has publicly come out as gay or bisexual while being an active player in the National Football League (NFL): Carl Nassib, who revealed himself as gay on June 21, 2021. In 2021, Carl Nassib became the first active player in the NFL to publicly come out.
