Thoughts On Michael Sam
By Ryan Simmons
Dak Dillon-USA TODAY Sports
I’ve got multiple problems with what happened during the 7th round of the 2014 NFL Draft, but I’m pretty pleased with how the Texans did.
Michael Sam thinks he should have been selected by a team in the first 3 rounds. That might be a bit steep, buddy.
"“From last season alone, I should’ve been in the first three rounds. SEC Defensive Player of the Year, All-American,” Sam said, via the Associated Press. “I knew I was going to get picked somewhere. Every team that passed me, I was thinking how I’m going to sack their quarterback.”"
Good. You’re going to need to use that anger to ensure you’re given a proper shot at a job in the NFL, much like anyone else selected in this year’s draft.
That’s it, right?
That’s all the Rams should have to worry about?
They took a chance on a player that could have great potential for a selection in the last round of the draft. No more to it. That’s all.
Of course that’s not all. Not with the heebie-jeebies that apparently come along with having an openly gay player entering the NFL.
I mean, can you believe it? There’s a 6’2”, 261 lb. man who’s good at sports… AND he’s gay? Oh man. I feel the collective gasp of straight America. It’s like he’s actually reaching in through the television and taking something from you.
How will you explain this to your family?
Hopefully you’ll have to mute the episode of Mad Men from Sunday showing two women kissing each other on prime time television.
Disgusting, right? RIGHT?!
It’s saddening to see how many people have blasted statements like the following on social media:
"“Man U got little kids lookin at the draft. I can’t believe ESPN even allowed that to happen”“Horrible”“My faith won’t allow me to ACCEPT what took place over the weekend! Sorry, NOT sorry! #AdamandEve #NotAdamAndAdam”"
So there’s that. Those were just a few examples from professional athletes who were not named solely to avoid further attention given to their Twitter accounts.
This has nothing to do with religion. This has nothing to do with politics.
This is about football.
I don’t even care about how much of that was planned, or edited by ESPN, or whatever. If you were watching the 7th round of the draft, you were probably in the minority. NO MORE KISSES ON DRAFT DAY. I blame Kevin Costner.
In February, Andre Johnson was asked about Sam’s coming out before the draft and had this to say:
"“I don’t know. Everybody says what they would do or how they would react or whatever. But you don’t know until you’re in that position,” Johnson said. “As far as we know, he’s the first guy to come out and say it. You have to respect him a lot for that. Because it’s not like he’s being undercover with that or hiding something. The guy’s come out and said it is what it is. To me, I think you respect him more for that than anything, because he’s not hiding anything, he’s not pretending to be someone.”"
There it is. Did anything else need to be said? No.
Unfortunately, not every active player will have that attitude toward Michael Sam.
I can’t help but wish the Texans would have taken him in the 7th, solely for the potential he has. He easily could have been taken in the 5th or 6th rounds by any of the other teams.
Maybe they all had him on the boards as a 7th round pick, or a UFA pickup after the draft.
Who knows?
The only people that need to be worried about how he’ll fit in to their locker room AS A TEAMMATE and into their scheme AS A FOOTBALL TEAM are the Rams.
Sam’s going to have to work harder than ever to make sure he’s given a roster spot on this team, much like any other player taken in this draft by any other team. Jeff Fisher has already said he has zero qualms with dropping him if he’s underperforming, which is what I thought the job description entailed for everyone.
I hate that this non-issue has taken over NFL Draft coverage. I also hate that Johnny Manziel is getting all the run, and the player taken 21 picks prior is already an afterthought. We’ll see how that one pans out for Cleveland’s new backup.
I won’t even get started on that….
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