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

With Gruden commentating.
"Mike, in college they called this kid the Cleveland Steamer, and you can see why. You can chip this kid, hold him, double-team, quadrupedal-team, it doesn't matter. He can preform. I know people questioned his drive in college, but I never saw it. I put on the tape of him, and all you saw was drive, drive, drive. And, let me tell you something else, Mike. He's as good with his hands as he is with his lower body."

 

Rhoden:

Kensil added, “Anytime you get the SEC defensive player of the year in the seventh round, that’s a pretty good pick.”

And that is precisely why the N.F.L. doesn’t get a parade: Sam should have been taken three rounds earlier. You cannot acknowledge the Southeastern Conference as the best college football conference, as the N.F.L. has, and then let one of its top players be drafted behind kickers and players from obscure programs in obscure conferences.

“As is the case in the draft, sometimes players fall,” Rams Coach Jeff Fisher said in an interview with NFL.com. “He fell.”

So why did Sam, a 6-foot-2, 261-pound senior pass rusher, fall?

His off-the-field conduct was apparently stellar: no firearm violations, no driving-under-the-influence arrests, no reports of domestic abuse or barroom brawls. Especially after his mediocre performance at the scouting combine in February, critics said he was too slow to play linebacker in the N.F.L. and too small to be an effective lineman.

Sam may have been overlooked, though, because of his sexual orientation. Even teams that had no problem with Sam’s being gay might have been wary of the possibility of a news media distraction and of a public-relations quandary, real or imagined.

Still, players and fans have recently been able to see how public outrage and scrutiny can influence an entire league’s behavior.

Two weeks ago, the N.B.A. barred the Los Angeles Clippers’ owner, Donald Sterling, for life and fined him $2.5 million for racist comments he made in private. On Saturday, the N.F.L. made history with Sam’s selection. In each case, the leagues had little ethical wiggle room. Had Sam not been drafted, the N.F.L. would have had much explaining to do.

nyti.ms/1g0dmr8

 

The SEC Player of the Year should be drafted high. Every Heisman winner is bound for NFL stardom. That's how it works, right? College awards are clearly the best way to judge NFL potential.

 

Once again, Rhoden proves he is an idiot with his never-ending quest to seek out bigotry even where it does not exist.

 

Texas' Jackson Jeffcoat is kicking himself right now...he should have came out of the closest to nab a draft spot.

 

To paraphrase Hillary Clinton "what difference does it make" Whether Sams was drafted in the
1st , 3rd or7th round, other than the monetary difference what matters is that he was drafted.

He's got a shot now to make an NFL team. That's what he wanted.

If some teams stayed away because they did not want the circus I can't say I blame them
based on the buzz that "the kiss" has created.

 

By all accounts, all NFL teams had Sam pegged as a one-specialty player, in his case, rushing the passer. That's a valuable specialty, but specialty players are almost always drafted low, or anyway, lower than guys teams figure can be in on more plays. I think it's really that simple.

 

Dolphins' Don Jones fined, ordered to undergo sensitivity training:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/dolphins/2014/05/11/don-jones-fined-for-michael-sam-tweets/8985297/

 

I think a lot of progressives who don't know football all that well are going to seriously have calm the F down about how much playing time he deserves to get. I can't see him ever being a full time starter, which is ok. He can still contribute and he's still a trailblazer and the next player who comes along and feels comfortable being out might be even more talented and he'll owe a little something to Sam's courage. But when I see people like Dave Zirin absolutely losing their mind on Twitter talking about conspiracies and every NFL team covering themselves in shame (when I suspect Zirin can't tell the difference between a 3-4 and 4-3 or what Sam would be asked to do in either) I have to shake my head, even as a super liberal guy. Sam now needs a fair shot, not blatant cheerleading.

 

What's ironic is that a lot of progressives want to see an end to football because of it's
dangers but yet want Michael Sams to play the game. Talk about contradictions.

 

I actually saw a pretty funny tweet to that effect, something like "First the NFL shows us hours and hours of players destroying their brains for our entertainment, and now I have to watch two guys kissing?"