Michael Sam Says He Is Gay; May Become First Publicly Gay Player in N.F.L.

[Boom_70]

heck, there are guys with third-round grades right now who will go in the first round.

And some who will go undrafted.

Exactly.

The best thing that can happen is for Sam to weigh 275 at the combine and run a 4.5.

Did wonders for Mike Mamula

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Well, again... I don't think the league as a whole cares that he's gay as much as they care that he's out. There are gay players in the NFL. There have been gay coaches in the NFL and there have been gay general managers in the NFL. People don't care until it becomes a distraction.

Michael Sam will be a distraction. That's not fair. That sucks. It's complete bullshirt, but it's reality.

It's unprecedented and that's what scares teams the most. Having an established player come out would be a lot easier for the NFL to handle than this.

I think it's fair to say the media coverage will turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

At the risk of working YF's corners, the very people who want this to be a shirtshow will do what they can to ensure that it becomes one.

The SI trolling piece linked in this thread is a prime example. You can get an anonymous source to say anything. If this is such an important story, and it is, we need to pay attention only to those who will allow themselves to be held accountable for their views.

I agree with every word of this. The running joke about quoting anonymous NFL execs always has been, "I called 10 and asked the same question until one agreed with the point I was trying to make for my story.." That's not to say that's always the case, but a lot of times it seems to be.

But none are going to go on the record about this saying anything other than "Congratulations, what a brave man..."

Just wait until the combine... Some NFL coach or exec will be asked about this and will say something they shouldn't and will have to apologize if nothing else... I'm sure a few players will do the same, especially since almost every one of them will be asked about it.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I don't think people are listing SF as a possible destination for Sam because it's a gay-friendly community and they want to make the fans happy. They're suggesting it as a destination because, like Baltimore, New England, Pittsburgh, Green Bay and a few other places, they have the coaching staff and executives in place who are less likely to be deterred by this.

Never mind that the most openly homophobic player in the NFL is on the Niners roster.

 

[LongTimeListener]

There's been talk about the NFL's concern for revenues here and if I'm not mistaken some people have mentioned the Niners as a team that might be looking at Sam positionally. Given San Francisco's reputation as a GLBT-friendly community, might that be a move they consider making to sell some tickets, spread some goodwill with a large segment of their market?

While I agree that the distraction thing is overblown once you get past his initial presser/training camp appearance wherever he plays, San Francisco might be the worst place for him to wind up.

He'll constantly be dealing with demands from every GLBT group in town that he be more "active in the community/more of a spokesman for the cause."

Harbaugh runs a pretty tight ship. He would shut that down, especially during the season.

Also geography would help him. With the move of the stadium, the 49ers will spend 100 percent of their time in Santa Clara County, an hour south of San Francisco. (Team HQ has been there for decades.) It is a very welcome area for a gay person but not a particularly activist one.

In this hypothetical, I would imagine him to be part of a Gay Pride parade earlier in his career, and to take part in some other stuff during the off-season as any player might with the community involvement of his choosing, but that it wouldn't be part of his routine from July until January.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Another thing to keep in mind about Sam's public-service obligations is, how long will he be the only known gay player? I for one believe the talk to be legitimate that four NFL players were ready to come out last year until the Collins story hit. And it might not be much longer before we see a handful, then a dozen, then a large enough number that it isn't too noteworthy anymore.

So there's a good chance that Sam in three years is nothing more than a decent backup (or starter) whose personal life isn't all that remarkable.

 

[93Devil]

If he goes undrafted he will still be going to a team as an undrafted free agent.

He will be going to an NFL camp this year.

 

[Liut]

Couldn't transfer the link (sorry) but Bryan Burwell is getting roasted by on-line readers of the Post Dispatch.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Couldn't transfer the link (sorry) but Bryan Burwell is getting roasted by on-line readers of the Post Dispatch.

This is going to be YF's favoritest column of all! "I knew but I couldn't say anything"

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/bryan-burwell/burwell-sam-s-secret-was-not-a-secret-at-all/article_e95c2df0-173c-5394-bb97-2e449b5b229e.html

Burwell: Sam's 'secret' was not a secret at all

 

[Armchair_QB]

There's been talk about the NFL's concern for revenues here and if I'm not mistaken some people have mentioned the Niners as a team that might be looking at Sam positionally. Given San Francisco's reputation as a GLBT-friendly community, might that be a move they consider making to sell some tickets, spread some goodwill with a large segment of their market?

While I agree that the distraction thing is overblown once you get past his initial presser/training camp appearance wherever he plays, San Francisco might be the worst place for him to wind up.

He'll constantly be dealing with demands from every GLBT group in town that he be more "active in the community/more of a spokesman for the cause."

Harbaugh runs a pretty tight ship. He would shut that down, especially during the season.

Also geography would help him. With the move of the stadium, the 49ers will spend 100 percent of their time in Santa Clara County, an hour south of San Francisco. (Team HQ has been there for decades.) It is a very welcome area for a gay person but not a particularly activist one.

In this hypothetical, I would imagine him to be part of a Gay Pride parade earlier in his career, and to take part in some other stuff during the off-season as any player might with the community involvement of his choosing, but that it wouldn't be part of his routine from July until January.

But does he even want to do that? I got the impression he doesn't want to do anything other than live his life and play football now that he's out.

 

[Paynendearse]

Through no fault of his own, he will be a distraction. Tim Tebow was a distraction. The distraction factor comes in when 1. medial types from outside football all of a sudden want to cover your team and 2. media/fans want you to play/not play regardless of ability. Tebow (who was a crappy NFL quarterback) fit both of these. Sam fits both of these. That's not fair, but it is real.

If his teammates didn't care, didn't see it as a big deal, then why should the media make it a distraction/big deal?

But they will. He'll be the biggest story in the NFL from now through the second he's drafted and until the season starts.

As someone else pointed out, he's going to draw more of a media circus than Tebow. You're also going to start seeing more and more news outlets that don't cover the NFL come in and write stories.

I'd say it's less of a deal to Sam and the locker room than the media. Which to me tells me where all the interest is in this is driven.
I've got next door gay neighbors. Discussing this the other day they both are of the opinion, and say most of their gay friends say the same thing, that they just all want to live their lives.They aren't comfortable with the media's in your face approach to this that tends to make it a spectacle.

 

[LongTimeListener]

There's been talk about the NFL's concern for revenues here and if I'm not mistaken some people have mentioned the Niners as a team that might be looking at Sam positionally. Given San Francisco's reputation as a GLBT-friendly community, might that be a move they consider making to sell some tickets, spread some goodwill with a large segment of their market?

While I agree that the distraction thing is overblown once you get past his initial presser/training camp appearance wherever he plays, San Francisco might be the worst place for him to wind up.

He'll constantly be dealing with demands from every GLBT group in town that he be more "active in the community/more of a spokesman for the cause."

Harbaugh runs a pretty tight ship. He would shut that down, especially during the season.

Also geography would help him. With the move of the stadium, the 49ers will spend 100 percent of their time in Santa Clara County, an hour south of San Francisco. (Team HQ has been there for decades.) It is a very welcome area for a gay person but not a particularly activist one.

In this hypothetical, I would imagine him to be part of a Gay Pride parade earlier in his career, and to take part in some other stuff during the off-season as any player might with the community involvement of his choosing, but that it wouldn't be part of his routine from July until January.

But does he even want to do that? I got the impression he doesn't want to do anything other than live his life and play football now that he's out.

I think you're right.

I also think that because of the publicist who arranged this story and the place Sam now holds, he will have to accept a certain amount of publicity. Maybe one appearance at the pride parade of the town where he is drafted -- which shouldn't be a big deal since, according to the stories, he went to the pride parade in St. Louis last year -- and then that's it.

 

[qtlaw]

The self-fulfilling prophecy is the worst part of this; the narrative becomes "he's a gay player" so the media swarms it; which leads the teams to cower in fear because of the narrative;

Society needs to say "screw you, we won't tolerate this, judge the man for his talents alone."

The man was the SEC Def POY where LSU, Fla, Bama and Auburn play; go ahead and say he loaded up stats on patsies; are the voters in the big bad SEC that stupid? Someone points to David Pollack and ignores the 95% of the other POYs? Come on, be smarter than that. We can all point to outliers/anomolies. Unitas was a free agent, cut twice before he became, at least at the time he retired, the GOAT.

All we need Sam to be given is a chance, doesn't matter if he goes in the 1st rd or the 5th (well it does in terms of how BIG a shot he gets of course); just let us see whether he can play. Missou is a legitimate top 10 program, not some second tier school where Sam put up huge numbers and won the Thorpe/Biletnikoff award. He's a player.