SEC Defensive Player of the Year and NFL prospect Michael Sam came out. While he says his teammates and coaches knew since the summer and that many people associated with the NFL also seemed to know, he wanted to formally come out on his own terms, saying, “I want to own my truth. … No one else should tell my story but me.”
Right now, everyone is saying the right things and I am hopeful that folks will do the right thing as well. ESPN.com has him rated as the 119th best prospect in the draft and scored him as a “good prospect”. Odds are he will be drafted somewhere in the middle rounds. If so, he will be the first openly gay athlete to play in a major American team sport.
There is lots more coverage at ESPN.com and elsewhere around the web.
To be clear, when I say I am hopeful that people “do the right thing”, I mean that I hope that they treat him like any other football player. If he can get after the QB and help stuff the run, little else should matter.Report
It’s probably rather unfair of me that when I saw “SEC” I immediately went to see which school and was relieved that it was Missouri instead of Auburn or Mississippi State or something.
Good for him.Report
Your reasons for this comment are different than mine would have been.Report
I’m confused… why were you relieved?Report
Kazzy,
Oh, PennState isn’t the half of what college football is like, in certain parts. And I’m sure the nasty business in the SEC isn’t going to make the papers anytime soon.
[For those wondering: no it isn’t just the SEC. duh.]Report
Because of all of the schools in the SEC to be a gay football player at, Missouri is probably one that you’d have had the least amount of problems in comparison to the others.Report
That makes sense, @will-truman . That’s what I thought you were going for but wanted to make sure I understood.Report
Richie Incognito will.Report
Sorry I’m not sure what the big deal is. The idea that he wants to be treated like everyone else is great but it seems to run counter to the idea that he needs/ or should get all this publicity for being gay. I’m not sure what being gay has to do with being a good defensive player so why even bring it up? I mean it isn’t like there haven’t been gay players before that were known by their teammates.Report
We may not be past the point where an openly gay athlete is discriminated against. So while Sam has not asked for any special treatment aside from getting to tell his own story, this is indeed news.Report
@kazzy I don’t know that athletes being discriminated has to enter into it.
That the DPY of the SEC — at M’zou no less — is openly gay and it’s not news is actually kind of news, I think, if for no other reason than as a watershed moment. It isn’t just that he’s an athlete, in which case I think I would agree more with @notme . But when you add in the DPY/ SEC/ M’zou hat trick, I think it really is something that should be noted, for the same reason that the Al Madrigal’s Daily Show report on the gay couple stunt last fall needed to be seen by those of us that don’t live in the South.Report
But when you add in the DPY/ SEC/ M’zou hat trick, I think it really is something that should be noted,
Huh. We all seem to have opinions about this.
The reason I think it should be noted is that Sam himself seems to view his “coming out” as remarkably unnoteworthy, at least wrt his status as a football player. He essentially came out only to people who didn’t know him personally or weren’t part of an NFL organization contemplating drafting him. Of course, there’s the politics of it all, and I’d imagine that contributed to his decision.
It reminds me of all the talk when Michael Stipe “came out”. Reporters asked him why he didn’t come out earlier and he said something like “well, I did. Everyone who knows me knows I’m gay”.Report
I think it’s actually all these things. In some ways, it’s a small deal in the sense that this was already common knowledge within many football circles and was ultimately of little consequence. In other ways, well, he could be the first openly gay athlete in major American team sports to suit up. That’s a huge deal! And if he is treated like any other player (as he seems to have been thus far by and large), that is a huge deal!
He also provides a role model to other gay athletes or gay young people who might have felt that sports was not a venue for them.Report
How is the defensive player of the year at a major conference only #119?Report
For the same reason a former Heisman-winner went #175. Concern over his size, I would guess.Report
Yeah, it’s his size. He’s short for a down lineman in the NFL, but it’s not clear how good he’d be as an outside linebacker. He’s really fast, though.Report
ALso, the fact that his sexual orientation was widely known on campus and within the SEC even before he “came out” means he’s “openly gay”, which … well, here, you read it.
“There are guys in locker rooms that maturity-wise cannot handle it or deal with the thought of that,” the assistant coach said. “There’s nothing more sensitive than the heartbeat of the locker room. If you knowingly bring someone in there with that sexual orientation, how are the other guys going to deal with it? It’s going to be a big distraction. That’s the reality. It shouldn’t be, but it will be.”
Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20140209/michael-sam-draft-stock/#ixzz2stX1jtMbReport
His size is an issue (weight, height and length), and there’s also a concern about his flexibility. Finally, he’s a bit of a ‘tweener, so there’s a question if he’ll be a DE or an OLB. The lack of a specified position could be a drawback, as could be the question if he’s an every-down player.Report
What I’ve found interesting about the conversation that surrounds him nowadays is how much of it could be confused as gay sexual innuendo. He’s a “tweener” with “questionable size”; can he get “penetration”?
Football is actually already pretty gay.Report
@kazzy — I’m just glad I wasn’t the only one thinking it! 🙂Report
The use of the term ‘penetration’ has long elicited laughs among the more immature fans. Some broadcasters seem to be trolling with it at times.Report
In football, you achieve penetration.
In baseball, you get last licks.Report
Oh yeah, agreed.Report
The SEC’s D player of the year is the 119th best prospect? I remember when it was a good football league.Report
I didn’t know that the Securities and Exchange Commission fielded their own football team!Report
You should see them play. they killed the FCC and the CIA last year.Report