Michael Sam Reality Show

I would say no, but that's a valid question. He was the first to be drafted, but that might be where it ends. I think it will be difficult for the Rams to cut Sam and I think, unless he's just terrible in training camp, that he'll make the team, but that remains to be seen.

 

A preseason game will count for the TV movie version, yes.

 

The only third-round projection I saw was a link posted on one of the previous threads. That projection was made in mid-season. and influenced heavily by the three dominant games he had early on. Were there others?

 

He was on a couple top 100 prospect lists, some of which don't include underclassmen and almost all were made before the combine and his pro day. A lot of those lists are based on how players performed as college players and don't take size and speed into consideration as much as they should.

 

Gotcha. Thanks.

Burns is correct. If Sam's representatives didn't realize that he was a borderline prospect who would go late in the draft if at all, they are idiots and he is a fool for hiring them.

 

Out of curiosity, just googled his agents and discovered that they are indeed newcomers to the business with "no secretary, no staff beyond a couple of college interns, and until last week, their office was the apartment they share about 20 blocks from the Pacific Ocean." And they've only had one other football-related client, that being a mere practice squad player for the Lions.

Suspect Sam likely would've been spared this messy start to his career if he'd chosen more experienced representation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/sports/football/rookie-sports-agents-and-michael-sam-learn-the-ropes-together.html

 

He was woefully unprepared for the combine. That's Agenting 101.

 

Potential seventh-round picks don't get good agents, no matter their historical significance. They get the guys trolling the lobby at the combine.

 

I think Sam could have gotten better representation if he had known better at the time. I wonder if his current team saw his situation and saw an opportunity to make a name for themselves because Sam would be high-profile, if not a top pick.

LTL is right, the most important thing an agent can do is have you ready for the combine, and Sam was definitely not. There's a reason why most top picks leave school early and disappear to Florida or Arizona to train for the combine.

I think his agents were more concerned with getting that Executive Producer credit on an Oprah-owned show than they were getting their client ready for the draft.

 

A college-prepped player coming out of the premier conference in the country should not have to be told to get prepared for the combine, too.

Mizzou has put a ton of players in pro football, so they know what the game is. I'm sure Sam could have gotten all kinds of guidance, from combine prep (including going to one of those places in Florida or Arizona), to agent selection and everything else, from Pinkel and the MU staff. And from former Mizzou players in the NFL, for that matter. If he was that naive about what to do, it's because he chose to be that naive.

It's almost as if Sam decided his draft prep would be to tell everyone he's gay, then go sit on the couch for 4 months and wait for the NFL teams to trip over each other to draft him. And everyone around him thought that was a great plan.

 

Yeah, rule one when picking an agent - you never want to be that agency's best player. Especially when you haven't played a down in the NFL yet. That said, looking at the rest of Empire's client list - it shouldn't be a surprise. When you are putting players who are not currently attached to an NFL team on your website, it doesn't exactly sell the agency.

 

A good agent would have told him expect what KIND of prep to do for the draft, particularly telling him he needed to work on his skills in space. However, I agree with Mizzou that his agents saw a lot more value (and commission) in trying to get him all over reality television rather than his football career. Plenty of players have had agents who steered them wrong, so Sam is hardly the first.