Nonbinary NFL exec has managed events for the Jacksonville Jaguars for years
Em Nees has helped the Jacksonville Jaguars entertain fans for years, bringing their nonbinary identity to a rising NFL team. The post Nonbinary NFL exec has managed events for the Jacksonville Jaguars for years appeared first on Outsports.
Mark
Few things maintain their viscerality as we weave our paths through life as much as an early love for sports.
No matter the level of separation created by the mortal tides we all experience, that kernel persists within, waiting for the eventual reinvigoration when the moment presents itself.
That moment came for Em Nees in 2021 when they applied for a job with the Jacksonville Jaguars while waiting out the business shutdowns at home in Ohio that year.
“I really didn’t expect anything of it,” Nees told Outsports.
Four years on from that decision, Nees is now the senior manager of live events and booking for the Jaguars and one of the few publicly out nonbinary transmasculine individuals to hold such a position in major North American sports. Celebrating their position with the NFL team, Nees is now an honoree on Outsports Power 100 Rising 50 this year.
Get off the sidelines and into the game
Our weekly playbook is packed with everything from locker room chatter to pressing LGBTQ sports issues.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today
Related
Rising 50 highlights powerful LGBTQ up-and-comers and veterans in sports on Power 100
Outsports Power 100 this year features a Rising 50 of out LGBTQ people across sports who have power and influence.
Finding an NFL career through sports ups and downs
The job feels tailor-made for Nees, marrying their extensive education and experience in live event and concert production with the world of sports, which they profess has been part of them since an early age.
Nees has played basketball throughout their life. They spent time on the softball diamond in their youth as well. They even took a turn on the gridiron, playing running back against boys two years their elder alongside their older brother.
“Let’s just say I got my a** smacked by some of these people,” they recalled with a grin. “There were 200-pound kids on the line and I’m getting my a** smacked, but I got back up every single time and I’d go back out there.”
That tenacity serves Nees well in the day-to-day workings of their role in the Jacksonville Jaguars organization. It is also evident in how they champion LGBTQ visibility, inclusion and equity within the organization, the city of Jacksonville and further into the state of Florida.
Em Nees chairs the Jaguars’ LGBTQ employee resource group Pride At Work, holds a seat on Equality Florida’s First Coast community steering committee and helped curate and produce an LGBTQ music festival called “Bold Love Fest” during Pride month last year, an event that the Jacksonville Jaguars organization itself supported.
“Bold Love Fest” particularly stood out as “a dream” and “a love letter to the community in Jacksonville” to Nees when the concept was proposed.
“We wanted to make it a full, encompassing day for the community,” they said. “We’re lucky that our stadium has an amphitheater like Daily’s Place attached to it, and these different resources that not every organization has, so we wanted to tap into that and make something great.”
Putting such a large focus on LGBTQ empowerment, especially within the world of major sports, is deeply personal for Nees.
“I wasn’t always out and proud. I grew up in a very small town, so the idea of coming out was terrifying,” they said. “I knew my family would be supportive, but there was that fear of everybody else, especially in a small town where everybody knows everything about everyone. It’s so intimidating.”
Getting out of that environment during their college years at the University of Akron and Carnegie Mellon University gave them the needed space to find themself.
They came out publicly as gay in 2015 and later as nonbinary transmasculine in 2024, with Nees greatly crediting their wife’s support and therapy for being able to explore their gender identity.
“Allowing myself to be who I am made me realize I didn’t want to go back to hiding myself,” Nees said. “I think about all of the kids who come from that small town after me and I would hate for them to feel that same way and hide themselves.
“I feel like the best thing I can do is be out and let people see me for who I am and hope that resonates with them, especially younger people because I think there is a fear, especially around masculine-dominated sports that haven’t provided a platform for people in the community to be out and proud.
“We’re starting to see it more and more and we can’t go back. For me, it’s important to be visible so that others will feel comfortable saying, ‘Oh, I could go work in sports,’ or even just people in Jacksonville seeing that there are people at the Jaguars who are also in the community who are out and proud and want to fight for them and show up for them.
“I go to events on behalf of Pride At Work and a lot of people thank me for being there and tell me how much they love the Jaguars. That alone tells me everything I need to know: we need to be out there.”
Nees carries that mission on a daily basis simply by being who they are unapologetically, but their journey to becoming the person who didn’t want to hide anymore harkens back to their tackle football days in a way that solidifies the strength at their core.
“Once you start to get a little older, these societal norms start to put you in a box. At that age, I didn’t care,” they said. “In my mind, me coming out as nonbinary and transmasculine is me getting back to that and living for that kid again.”
Subscribe to the Outsports newsletter to keep up with your favorite out athletes, inspiring LGBTQ sports stories, and more.
The post Nonbinary NFL exec has managed events for the Jacksonville Jaguars for years appeared first on Outsports.
