Michael Sam, the first openly gay player to be drafted by and play in the NFL, is currently unemployed.
Fans of the Rams and Cowboys – the team which took a seventh round flier on him in last April's draft and the team that signed him to their practice squad for an abbreviated stint before releasing him almost two weeks ago – will point to his limited athleticism and tweener status as the reason for his failed turn with both squads.
Others, including Cyd Zeigler of Outsports.com, point to an entirely different reason that will, no doubt, have many a jaded, unsympathetic eye rolling.
Zeigler, citing statistics connected to historical precedent, comes to the conclusion that, had Sam truly wanted to play in the NFL, he never should have come out as gay. Meaning that bigotry – that ugliest of human states of mind born of weakness, ignorance and fear – has played and is playing a major part in his continued unemployment.
Sam, 6'2" and 261 pounds, played defensive end in college at the University of Missouri. Coming into the NFL there was consistent debate over what position seemed to fit his pro prospects the best.
He was tough, but small.
He was strong, but not fleet of foot.
Some projected him as an outside linebacker in a 3-4, but his slow 40 time at the combine (4.70) made that seem like a long shot. Some projected him as a defensive end in the 4-3, but his small stature made the prospect of his ability to hold up at the point of attack feel far-fetched.
The team that eventually drafted him, the St. Louis Rams, play a 4-3. He managed four sacks in the preseason and generally acquitted himself well, setting the edge and holding his own in the run game. But after being cut from the roster and spending a few weeks on the practice squad, Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys, another 4-3 team, signed him away. Another short stay and Sam was again packing his bags, this time with no known NFL destination.
Now he waits.
Or was that it? Was the NFL's first openly gay player a bust? Had NFL teams seen enough of Sam in two short stints to know he simply couldn't make it in the league?
Or had bigotry and fear begun to seep slowly into the cracks of the foundations of Sam's nascent NFL career?
CBS Sports, which releases a yearly Big Board of their top NFL prospects headed into the draft, had Sam rated the 90th overall player in February – merely three hours before he announced he was gay.
Shortly thereafter, CBS had dropped him to 160th.
Sam, the 2013 SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Year and former All-American at Missouri, led the Tigers with 11.5 sacks and 19 tackles for loss in 2013.
He was eventually selected 249th overall in April's NFL draft.
Since 2000, of the 73 "Defensive Player of the Year" award winners from any of the Big 5 conferences – the ACC, Big Ten, Big XII, Pac-12 and SEC – who were then subsequently drafted, every single one made a roster his first season.
Only four of those DPOY winners – Jackson Jeffcoat, Mark Herzlich, Nick Reid and Dale Robinson – suffered a lower draft status than Sam. He is the first ever-SEC Defensive Player of the Year who was not selected in the first five rounds, and only the second who didn't go in the first two rounds. He is also only the third DPOY in history – and the first one to be drafted – to fail in making the active roster his rookie season.
Of the three former Defensive Players of the Year to go in the sixth round – Greg Jones, Rufus Alexander and Bill Swancutt – all three were on active rosters in the NFL for at least three seasons, according to Ziegler.
To put it another way, of the 73 DPOYs in the big conferences since 2000, 95 percent were selected earlier than Michael Sam; all but two since 2000 (97 percent) - and 100 percent in the last eight years - made an active roster his rookie season ... all except for Sam.
All of which feels slightly more than coincidental.
Could the NFL – maybe not collectively – be intentionally or not, black-balling him because of his choice to come out as homosexual? For his part, Commissioner Roger Goodell, and the rest of the folks at the league office, would certainly love the increase in publicity due to having Sam on an active roster.
NFL teams and locker rooms are a delicate ecosystem built on a balance of camaraderie, machismo and controlled violence. Could there be concern that the presence of a homosexual teammate would cause some players to feel ill at ease?
Sam, during his time in college and short stint in the league, made no waves and seemed entirely professional. Teammates seemed unconcerned with his sexual preference and general presence. He was just another player looking to realize a dream.
NFL teams are made up of players from a wide range of backgrounds, but black players constitute almost 68 percent of NFL rosters, according to Best Ticket Sports' Unofficial NFL Player Census. While it is always dangerous to generalize about such a large and diverse group of people, it is hard not to wonder if maybe race is playing it's own certain element to this game.
Many NFL players hail from lower income areas and survived upbringings in some of the worst socio-economic conditions the U.S. has to offer. Many of these areas are predominantly black. Surviving – and even thriving – in such a world requires that young men are perceivved as "manly." Could the black community's uneasiness toward accepting homosexuality be having an affect on Sam?
Just this week, Hall of Fame defensive back Deion Sanders commented in an interview with Larry King appearing on Huffington Post that he thought Sam's status as an openly gay man, could be a choice – an outmoded view of sexuality often stemming from an almost intentional ignorance.
"I'm not saying I condone it, but I don't condemn it," the Pro Football Hall of Famer said of Sam. Noting that he'd personally reached out to Sam, he added, "I don't love what he do, but I love him as a man. And I just wanted him to understand the burden and the weight he's carrying."
When King asked Sanders if he thought Sam's sexuality could be a choice, the retired NFL player noted, "It could be."
This is the same Sanders who claimed in late February that every single football team he ever played on as a professional had a gay player on the roster and that that player was liked and accepted by teammates.
"We always knew," Sanders said on the Arsenio Hall Show, per Jon Machota of Sports Day DFW. "But he was cool. That was our boy. We had to look out for him."
No teams are currently interested in signing Sam, though some are keeping tabs on him, according to a report from Mike Freeman of Bleacher Report.
Perhaps NFL coaches and players are worried the presence of a player like Sam would throw the balance of that delicate locker room ecosystem out of whack.
Perhaps some teams are worried what fan backlash would be like were they to sign him.
And yet, perhaps others are worried simply that Sam won't perform, and not performing is not fitting in, is not finding a permanent home in the NFL.
The common element here is fear: fear of stigma, fear of underperforming, fear of bringing an unknown element into your home and allowing it to take seed.
The NFL is a copycat league where the best and the brightest are consistently plucked from Team A to help save Team B, while Team C, who didn't get the guy they wanted go out and do their best to find the next best thing, essentially attempting to poach the bright idea of another in a dangerous game of whisper down the lane.
Which means that, if one team fears the presence of Sam, others will follow suit.
Someday, the sexual orientation of players like Sam will not matter, and he will be judged purely on the merits of his abilities as a player – nothing more, nothing less.
Until that day comes though, the question of what has kept Michael Sam, the NFL's first openly gay player, off an active roster, will continue to linger and be debated.
