NFL Draft Prospect Michael Sam (DE/OLB - Missouri) comes out

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This is going to be a big story, and SI appears to be pretty on top of it. Seems like it was widely expected to happen.

Peter King (MMQB) Michael Sam's coming out as gay before draft test's NFL's mindset

“Should I really care?” one GM said. “Is it going to be that big a deal? Aren’t we beyond this?”
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“We talked about it this week,” (another) GM said. “First of all, we don’t think he’s a very good player. The reality is he’s an overrated football player in our estimation. Second: He’s going to have expectations about where he should be drafted, and I think he’ll be disappointed. He’s not going to get drafted where he thinks he should. The question you will ask yourself, knowing your team, is, ‘How will drafting him affect your locker room?’ And I am sorry to say where we are at this point in time, I think it’s going to affect most locker rooms. A lot of guys will be uncomfortable. Ten years from now, fine. But today, I think being openly gay is a factor in the locker room.”

I asked this general manager: “Do you think he’ll be drafted?”

“No,” he said.
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(SI) Q&A with Michael Sam

SI: Should this be a big deal?

Sam: It shouldn't. I mean, a straight person doesn't have to go in the media and tell them that they're straight, and I don't think a gay person should do that, neither. But that's the society we have to live in.

SI: Michael Sam, thanks for the time tonight. Good luck.

Sam: Thank you, Jon. I appreciate that.

​



Refresh my memory, guys: is this the first NFL player (assuming he lands on a roster) or the first current American football player, period (college, arena, anything else)...? Any past American football players who came out?
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I think we're at the point now where this isn't received as "good" or "bad" news. Everyone knew there were closeted gay CFB and NFL players so that isn't a story but I guess it is a breakthrough into an arena not previously accepting of homosexuals so that is a "good" thing.

...will say I'm surprised that the first openly gay CFB athlete is coming out of the SEC, also surprised at how politely SECRant, kind of the 4chan of sports boards, is handling the news.

 
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My status update on this was an obvious joke. I'm one of the most progressive people around. I give the guy credit for being willing to be the human shield for the people that may follow him someday. The status was removed immediately. I meant no harm and hope no one was offended. People can live their lives in any way they choose. I am not one to judge others.

 
By the way, there was a former player who came out as gay. I believe he was a Samoan guy that played for the Vikings. Offensive or defensive line. I can't remember if he came out during or after his career though.

Edit: Esera Tuaolo was his name. He was actually retired in 2002 when he came out and is the third player in NFL history to do so.

Link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esera_Tuaolo

 
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This does make me think back to the Aaron Rodgers non-story a few weeks back. I'm not sure I understand the whole "coming out" vs. "outing" phenomena. Someone's sexual orientation is their own damn business. I get that as they're in the minority and have been discriminated against it's somewhat important and empowering to identify openly as such but the whole "if someone is gay the world ought to know" thing just doesn't make sense. Obviously that didn't happen here so whatever.

 
Yeah, that was weird. But then, it turned out to be a farce, too, right?

Old school media planning still alive and well with surgical release of Michael Sam story

It truly was all hands on deck for this story and yet despite of this, this story didn't leak out ahead of the story's imposed embargo.
Howard Bragman has been tabbed as the PR mastermind behind this huge story breaking the way it did. I have to tip my hat to him, Sam, and the media companies' thorough coverage done in secrecy for the impressive surprise unveiling of such a culturally significant story.

More surprising is the fact that Sam told his entire team before the season of his sexual preference and it was not exactly a big secret around campus. That to me is an optimistic bellwether that perhaps the macho locker room of the NFL is ready for an openly gay player. In a day and age where TMZ and Twitter claw for whatever is low hanging fruit for attention, one of the biggest stories of the year was a non-story and the amount of people in the know were in the hundreds and maybe thousands.
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This was a cool look at this from another angle: how the media reported on it. The author is right: everyone was really, really prepared.

 
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Apparently he came out to his team this past Summer and the Athletic Department was aware so that may explain part of the "surgical release". I'm also willing to bet that the NFL's PR department has been game planning this scenario for at least a few years and had all the releases primed and ready to go.

As far as the other half of it looking so "clean" was that it wasn't messy. No one outed him, it wasn't leaked it didn't make TMZ etc. Part of that is probably due to the fact that he plays for a team in the middle of "fly-over country" and had he played for say, USC, and made it as open a secret as it apparently was the bloggers or TMZ type sponges may have broken the story. The other part of it probably speaks to his character and the character of Mizzou's Football team, coaching staff and atheletic department for being accepting and respectful of his privacy, a weird thing to ponder given the rape/suicide scandal they just had.

 
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I wonder if Sam came out of the closet to avoid getting blacklisted like Kerry Rhodes? With the big announcement there's no way this thing gets swept under the carpet, right along with Michael Sam.

 
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When Jason Collins came out last year, it was a huge, huge story. But he was an older player who was not likely to play again anyway. It was sort of a safe announcement for him.

This story should be bigger, imo. Michael Sam is an all-American and a legit draft prospect in a much more popular sport. The ongoing reaction will be interesting. I'm quite impressed that he came out to his team, and not only did it not leak, but Missouri was able to have the kind of season they had. Must not have been a distraction for them. This is likely the only time I will say something good about Mizzou, but good job to them, and Sam, for handling it well.

Now, the part I'm personally interested in, is seeing how this is handled by my wife's extended family. We have a bunch of extended relatives in Missouri who are redneck homophobes and also hardcore Mizzou supporters. This will make them squirm.

 
It's going to be interesting to see what an NFL team does. By all accounts he was considered a mid round pick. That means 3-6 in my book. The media is going to play this up to the highest level on draft day. It's going to put pressure on a lot of teams.

Then if or when he gets picked, the media is going to swarm that teams practices and try to get interviews with him and team mates. It will be a circus and quite possibly a distraction.

 
Funny how we as sports enthusiasts and players celebrate Jackie Robinson for breaking the color barrier but there are players that will have issues with this guy in their locker room.

 
StPaulHusker said:
Funny how we as sports enthusiasts and players celebrate Jackie Robinson for breaking the color barrier but there are players that will have issues with this guy in their locker room.
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There were players who hated the fact that Robinson was in their locker room at the time, too. It's only with the passage of time that the vast, vast majority thinks of racial integration in a locker room as a non-issue. Hopefully as Sam and others are able to openly be who they are, and the people who need to get used to it do, in fact, get used to it, this will also become a non-issue.

I mean, today, nobody even thinks that Ameer Abdullah is a BLACK football player, do they? He's just a stud RB, and the color of his skin never comes into the conversation. That's what it's going to be like in a couple/three decades with sexuality. Nobody's going to care. But today, for a while, it'll be an issue.

Speaking of Jackie Robinson, it's funny that I don't even think of him when I think of integration in major sports, but his step into the locker room paved the way for me to grow up not knowing the color of a player's skin was something worth knowing. It never occurred to me to even care, ever, and that was started by Jackie Robinson. Cool.

EDIT - and as I read back through your post, SPH, I realize I'm responding to something you didn't say. Misread it, so kinda ignore the first part of my reply.
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knapplc said:
StPaulHusker said:
Funny how we as sports enthusiasts and players celebrate Jackie Robinson for breaking the color barrier but there are players that will have issues with this guy in their locker room.
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There were players who hated the fact that Robinson was in their locker room at the time, too. It's only with the passage of time that the vast, vast majority thinks of racial integration in a locker room as a non-issue. Hopefully as Sam and others are able to openly be who they are, and the people who need to get used to it do, in fact, get used to it, this will also become a non-issue.

I mean, today, nobody even thinks that Ameer Abdullah is a BLACK football player, do they? He's just a stud RB, and the color of his skin never comes into the conversation. That's what it's going to be like in a couple/three decades with sexuality. Nobody's going to care. But today, for a while, it'll be an issue.

Speaking of Jackie Robinson, it's funny that I don't even think of him when I think of integration in major sports, but his step into the locker room paved the way for me to grow up not knowing the color of a player's skin was something worth knowing. It never occurred to me to even care, ever, and that was started by Jackie Robinson. Cool.

EDIT - and as I read back through your post, SPH, I realize I'm responding to something you didn't say. Misread it, so kinda ignore the first part of my reply.
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Consider it ignored.

I was just looking at the fact that you would think these players would look back to Robinson and see that they would be treating a gay player the same way if they thought they couldn't handle playing along side a gay player

 
It's funny to see the passive aggressive homophobia come out on social media and message boards when this news came out (no pun intended).

 
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