Former TE Smith helped pave the way for Nassib
For Bonnie Gilchrist, sister of the late Jerry Smith, former All-Pro tight end for Washington’s football team in the 1960s and ‘70s, Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib’s decision to come out as gay Monday was personal.
Thirty-five years ago, Smith, who played his entire NFL career as a closeted gay man, became the first known professional athlete to die of AIDS. He was 43.
“It was a long time coming,” Gilchrist, who praised Nassib for his courage, said in a phone interview. “One of the things that struck me the most about Carl’s announcement was he seemed to be at ease. He seemed to be relaxed. It appeared like a lot of weight had been lifted off his shoulders.”
While Nassib made NFL history as the first active player to be openly gay, Gilchrist said the sacrifices and suffering of several individuals who came before him, including her brother, are worth remembering. Nassib agrees, writing in part in the Instagram post accompanying his announcement, “I stand on the shoulders of giants, incredible people who paved the way for me to have this opportunity.”
“Jerry Smith deserves some trailblazing love,” Gilchrist, who retired last June after a 30-year career as a high school PE teacher and volleyball coach in Montgomery County, said.
Washington selected Smith in the ninth round of the 1965 NFL draft out of Arizona State. Originally a split end, he converted to tight end in 1966 and developed into one of the best to ever play the position.
In 1967, the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Smith, a fearless blocker who took on much larger defenders, caught 67 passes for 849 yards and 12 touchdowns in a 14-game season, resulting in the first of his two Pro Bowl nods. He retired in 1978 with 60 career touchdown catches, all with Washington, a record for tight ends that stood until the Denver Broncos’ Shannon Sharpe broke the mark in 2003. Despite his gaudy numbers, Smith has never been a finalist for the Hall of Fame.
“He was a great player and he belongs in the Hall of Fame,” said former Washington safety Brig Owens, who was traded to D.C. before Smith’s second season and became his best friend on the team. “He still needs to be considered. … He has the numbers despite playing fewer games and a different brand of football.”
Owens, who is Black, and Smith, who was White, became the NFL’s first interracial roommates in 1966. They roomed together at training camp and on the road during their 12 seasons together in Washington, and their friendship is the subject of a movie in development.
Smith’s double life as a football star and closeted gay man is chronicled in the NFL Network’s 2014 “A Football Life” documentary; Owens and Gilchrist, good friends who talk on the phone and meet for lunch dates regularly, are both featured prominently.
“I felt that if Jerry wanted to discuss it, he would’ve discussed it,” Owens said in the film of Smith’s sexual orientation. “There were situations where people would drop around and so forth, but we’d never discuss it other than he knew I was aware.”
Vince Lombardi, who had a brother who was gay, created an inclusive environment during his one season as Washington’s coach in 1969. Dave Kopay, a running back on that team, has cited Lombardi as an influence on his decision to come out in retirement and write a book about his experience as a gay athlete in 1977.
Smith came out to Gilchrist a couple years after he retired in 1978, but he never made a public announcement.