TWD Sunday Sports Thread For 2/9/14: Future NFL Player Michael Sam Announces He is Gay (Multiple Version)

First Version



SEC Defensive Player of the Year and future NFL lineman Michael Sam has announced that he is gay, in a story broken by New York Times' John Branch.

As Michael Sam, a defensive lineman, began to speak, he balled up a piece of paper in his hands. “I’m gay,” he said. With that, Mr. Sam set himself on a path to become the first publicly gay player in the National Football League. “I looked in their eyes, and they just started shaking their heads — like, finally, he came out,”

In what has been a remarkable headline weekend in sports news, Sam has rightfully stollen the headlines here, showing terrific courage in doing so.

As he told Branch and ESPN in the interview, Sam announced that he was gay last year with his University of Missouri teammates at a preseason practice.

And with the news, Sam has decided to join Twitter to further highlight his delight in revealing his great story:

I want to thank everybody for their support and encouragement,especially @espn, @nytimes and @nfl. I am proud to tell my story to the world!
— Michael Sam (@MikeSamFootball) February 10, 2014

It is quite the story for Sam and Missouri, considering this is the same school that has faced massive criticism of late, lead by ESPN, for possibly covering up one of their football players raping a female swimmer at the school a few years ago.

Sam is projected to be a solid second round pick at the very least, as only Kony Ealy is rated higher from that great Missouri defense from this season.

More on Sam

Of course, some anonymous scouts, so brave in their assessments, are saying that Sam will drop in the draft now instead of being at least a possible first round pick.

"I don't think football is ready for [an openly gay player] just yet," said an NFL player personnel assistant. "In the coming decade or two, it's going to be acceptable, but at this point in time it's still a man's-man game. To call somebody a [gay slur] is still so commonplace."

"I just know with this going on this is going to drop him down," said a veteran NFL scout.

So brave, yet so anonymous.

And their projections of Sam dropping comes after Sam being rated no lower than a 3rd Round pick, with even projections as a mid first round pick, as late of December by respected draft sources.

A Quality Shed of Light 

Steve Tisch, the co-owner of the New York Giants, has come out publicly to express his support of Sam's moves, telling TMZ Sports,  "I hope any NFL team would not hesitate to draft Michael if he is right for their team."

This is The Whole Delivery.