Michael Sam Taking Names

Michael Sam concludes every public statement by insisting he doesn’t believe that he’s being discriminated against by the NFL though he has no explanation other than discrimination for why he’s not playing in the NFL. People are free to draw their own conclusions, including his, which he wants to make clear is not discrimination, even if that’s the only logical conclusion:

“Hopefully I’m not being discriminated [against] because I’m gay. I don’t believe that I’m being discriminated [against] because I’m gay. I just want to know if I’m truly not in the NFL, it’s because of talent. Let it be because of my talents. But you’ve got to prove that I can’t play this game. If you look at the film, clearly I can. So, I’ll leave it at that. …”

Sam got himself back into the news this week by announcing there are plenty of closeted gay guys in the NFL. Everybody pretty much already assumes this but not everybody needs to feed the media a ready made headline.

I’m just saying there is a lot of us. I respect the players that did reach out to me and had the courage to tell me that they were also gay, but they do not have the same courage as I do to come out before I even played a down in the NFL.

For his courage, the Great Oz is going to give Sam a brilliant heart medallion and extend his hand for a Paso Doble. Sam has stated that he will never reveal the names of the closeted gay players in the NFL, but that they do exist and he could out them if he wanted to. That probably isn’t supposed to sound threatening, though it surely is. Which just goes to show, you can be a pioneer and an asshole.

Photo credit: Getty Images