Michael Sam. First openly gay NFL players?

Another reason Vince is the GOAT:

 

@jsorgi: Lombardi to coaches re: gay players: "You people make reference to his manhood, you'll be out of here before your *** hits the ground."

Ted now has a #1 pick locked in.

 

Now for that tight end.

Our resident homophobe makes his triumphant return to the main board with the same tired TT is gay schtick. Me thinks he doth protest too much.

 

Just come out of the closet already, you know you want to. 

 

Try a new schtick, Diggr. This one is real old

Leave Diggr alone. Brain damage is so hard to overcome.

undraftable

5th rounder.

 

I don't care if he's gay, but I don't get where anyone thinks he's a "hero" or "courageous" for declaring/labeling himself as so. He doesn't do it because he has to; he does it because he wants to.

It seems to me his agenda is not 'selling' himself, talking about his skills and accomplishments that would attract the interest of football teams, perhaps even improving his draft position. Rather, he's compelled to "make a statement" that promotes his "message", whatever that may be.

Put another way, what's more important to him? Making sure 'everybody' knows he's gay, or trying to become a NFL football player?

^You sure don't sound like you don't care if he's gay 

Hey Timmy,

 

I saw the posted video clip and he referred to his football skills far more than his sexuality. In fact, he referred to himself as a college graduate and African American the same number of times he referred to himself as gay - once.

Good for him.  Saw the interview on ESPN and seems like a pretty down to earth guy that really likes football.   Oh, and he's a pretty decent player based too.

From what I've read he came out because pretty much everyone knew it and he wanted to get it out of the way before someone else outted him. 

 

Before last season his college team had a team building exercise where the question asked was 'tell us something we don't know about you' and he answered that he was gay.  Coaches and team supported him and no one leaked to the media during the season.

The interesting thing to me is that from a strategic standpoint, anyone who was interested in drafting the kid knows they can get better value on him now.   

Would be nice if we lived in a world where it didn't matter.  Unfortunately that's not the case.  Kid cost himself money for his principals.  Have to respect that.  

Don't see how this will impact his rookie slotted contract?

The median deal in the fifth round should be worth $2,348,800 over four years with a $188,880 signing bonus. In the sixth round, the median should be a four-year, $2,263,968 deal with a $103,968 signing bonus. The median should be a four-year, $2,209,628 contract with a $49,628 signing bonus for the seventh round. nflpost

 

 

Good point Hungry5 .  I didn't realize how close those deals are now.  It's not chump change (to ordinary folks), but the difference is a lot less than I thought.  Those numbers are for 2013 so they'll be a little higher this year. 

Something else I read about him (if i'm remembering correctly); about 9 of his 11.5 sacks last year came in three games against lower level competition.  He's also a bit short and projects to a 3-4 OLB instead his college DL position.  Depending on what he does at the combine he could drop a lot in the draft and it will have 0 to do with him being gay.  I think that's a nuance that a lot of folks that don't follow football might miss.   

I would not be surprised if a player on whatever team drafts Sam comes out and says he too is gay.  More likely after the rosters are reduced to the final 53.

 

His height was something I read as a negative on him prior to this story. The comment from a scout was that if he was 2" taller he'd project easier to OLB.

 

 

NFL scout texts top 5 best locker rooms for Michael Sam: Seahawks, Patriots, Green Bay, Colts, Giants.

— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) February 10, 2014

 

Scouts around the country are reconsidering their descriptive terms for Sam

 

 

Good Anchor

 

Doesn't shy away from contact

 

Light on his feet

 

Fluid Hips

 

smooth skin

 

Likes to bump and run

 

Uses hands well

 

Will blow up his opponent 

 

 

It'll be interesting to see where he goes anyway as he's like Mike Daniels, Russell Wilson and Chris Borland in that he's considered shorter than what teams are looking for. It'll help him if he measures a full 6'2" but not sure how likely that is. My guess is that he'll end up a shade under 6'1" and draftniks will hemorhage about his height.

 

He also has a brighter financial future as he won't be paying child support to 17 different women.

Hey now, I haven't gone anywhere.  I read here still and post less frequently.  I still love all of you guys.. in a completely gay way.

 

 

Really though, this is a very small story, it is a story.. but it's time to get over this.  The NFL has had many gay players - including Mr. Tuaolo (former GBP, not a high profile guy but a nice player for a few seasons).  Is it going to be a story every time a professional athlete comes out as gay - heck, this guy hasnt been drafted yet and while it seems like he will end up being in the NFL for many years based on his draft rating, if he wasn't gay most of us wouldn't even know his name until the draft.

 

This is a publicity stunt for this guy, pure and simple.. he is going after ad dollars and attention based purely on his sexuality.  I agree that the NFL alpha-male, non-gay society needs to dial it back.  People SHOULD be allowed to have their religious beliefs, but Mr. Sam does have a right to WORK for any NFL team just like any other player.  The question organizations ask is if this guy is more interested in celebrity, or is he genuinely looking to change the culture within pro-football.

 

 

Was Mr Tuoalu openly gay?

Why does it have to be about money?  Maybe the guy didn't want to have to pretend he liked vagina every day for the next 8 years.  Can you imagine trying to pretend you lick shaft for 8 years?

 

Maybe the best answer is the simplest answer.

Tuaolo came out after his playing days were done.

 

It won't be a story every time a player comes out, but it is a story when the 1st comes out.

 

Stupid take that this is a publicity stunt. How is he going to make money from this? 

 

The question organizations will ask is if a 6'2" 260lb guy can play OLB after playing with his hand down his whole career.

 

 

If I knew TMZ would jump all over me next time I was affectionate with anyone, I can see being proactive and just putting it out there.  I don't get the sense he is tebowing this at all, just matter of fact. 

 

I can't imagine it was easy. 

It's somewhat amazing it never came out earlier with his teammates all knowing but now with the increase in pre-draft scrutiny the chances of it  not coming to light were even less. It was time to just get it out there.

Given that he was a recipient of some college football team activity where he was asked to share something about himself (honesty in this case really only allows one answer, in my opinion) -and- that it is being said he was being proactive because he felt everyone was going to find out anyway...

 

By far the most reasonable reasons for Michael Sam to do what he did were not for publicity and other "less cool" reasons.

 

Let's give the man the benefit of the doubt.

 

jmo

Reports were that he told his teammates and coaches last year.  So it's 'out there' on some level that he's gay.  As an aside, I find it incredible that it never made national news - no one sold him out.  Rather than have it linger in a gray area before being interviewed at the combine and having GM's and scouts wondering whether or not he's gay, he just got it out there and over with.  That IMHO took guts.  

 

Assuming he makes a team, he may get some endorsement deals with products that tend reach that demographic, but according to what I've seen if anything announcing this is going to cause him to drop in the draft.  If that happens, this would actually cost him some money.  I couldn't care less whether he's gay or not, but it to me the most interesting part of this is not whether or not he'll fit into the locker room - he'll be fine.  He's not new to that environment, including at least one locker room where everyone knew he was gay.  It's where he'll be drafted.  

I don't think it will affect his draft stock, it might even help it.  Sounds like his teammates respected him at Missouri.  If he plays hard and makes an impact on the field, no one will care what he wants - shaft or vag...

But he is now guaranteed a job on liberal tv analyzing sports for the next 40 years if he so chooses... and that can be a lot of cheese.... just the tip of the iceberg too.

 

It's all about the $... lets not pretend.

 

The only thing he is guaranteed is some bigoted fans saying stupid things about what this does or doesn't mean to him.

 

 

 

WTF are you talking about? You seriously think a team would take a player higher than they had him rated because he's gay? "We think the guy has 5th round talent, but let's burn a 3rd on him just to show how socially progressive we as an organization are"...I seriously doubt it.

 

If anything, it will affect his draft stock negatively. In a perfect world, his talent on the field and his character would be the only things that mattered, but I don't know if that's reality.

McCarthy called Missouri DE Michael Sam courageous for coming out yesterday. If he can produce, MM said, they'd "have room for that guy."

Since most rookies have to play Special Teams he made the smart move to try avoiding getting drafted by the Vikings.

Perhaps deserving of it's very own thread? 

 

Seriously, good for him, now go play football.