Watch Michael Sam's ESPN interview
here
As recently as mid-January, CBS Sports projected that Michael Sam, the SEC Defensive Player of the Year from Missouri who
came out as gay last night, was a second or third round pick most likely to go
72nd overall in April's NFL draft.
After Sam came out, however, CBS adjusted their projection, initially saying Sam was most likely to go 160th overall before bumping him back up to 110th and saying he's most likely to go in the third, fourth, or fifth rounds. Time will tell if their draft projection holds up, but what's really amazing is how they try to explain it, claiming that the issue isn't that Sam is openly gay, but instead that by telling the world about his sexual orientation he has become a distraction:
Any club drafting Sam would add distractions for players, and teams normally work to avoid any distraction.
As the media glare intensifies at the Scouting Combine and the weeks leading up to the draft, Sam will be viewed as more and more of a distraction. That fact -- not Sam's homosexuality -- is what will cause him to slip into the late rounds or perhaps even entirely out of the draft.
To recap: Three weeks ago, CBS projected Sam as a second or third rounder, and now they say he might not even get drafted, but they also say if their projection comes true, it has absolutely nothing to do with his sexual orientation, it's just because he's a distraction.
That's pretty much the purest form of bull right there. Maybe Sam will drop in the draft; I'm sure he anticipated that possibility before coming out. But if he does, it has everything to do with his sexual orientation and it says more about the people doing the drafting than it does about Sam himself.
I mean, take a look at this amazing attempt at rationalization from CBS:
The problem is that while Sam is a good prospect, he's not a great one. While starring as a defensive end for the Tigers, Sam was asked to play linebacker at the Senior Bowl and he struggled with the position change, showing limited flexibility and fluidity. This fact could limit him to the defensive end position in the traditional 4-3 alignment, further complicating his stock.
No, the problem is homophobia. Three weeks ago, Sam was a second or third rounder; today, they are saying he might not get drafted. The football calculus did not change in those three weeks. What changed is how some people in and around the NFL view Sam. If a team passes on Sam for a football reason, that's the way the draft is supposed to work. But if they pass on Sam because he came out, that's the definition of homophobia, no matter how many "experts" try to blame Sam for being a "distraction."
It's also a pretty good definition of being a loser, because if you choose an inferior player simply because the better player was "a distraction," the message you're sending to your fans is that you'd rather be homophobic and lose than support equality and win.