Missouri football player Michael Sam says he is gay, aims to be first publicly gay player NFL

Contents:

• BEFORE CARL NASSIB, MICHAEL SAM WAS THE NFL’S FIRST OPENLY GAY DRAFT PICK. HE NEVER PLAYED A REGULAR SEASON GAME.
• N.F.L. PROSPECT MICHAEL SAM PROUDLY SAYS WHAT TEAMMAT KNEW: HE’S GAY
• COLLEGE FOOTBALL STAR MICHAEL SAM: 'I'M AN OPENLY, PROUD GAY MAN'
• MIZZOU PLAYER SAYS HE IS GAY, COULD BE FIRST OPENLY GAY NFL PLAYER
• MICHAEL SAM, LLEGE FOOTBALL STAR AND TOP NFL PROSPECT, SAYS HE’S GAY
• MIZZOU'S MICHAEL SAM SAYS HE'S GAY
• FOR OPENLY GAY FOOTBALL PLAYER, COMG OUT CAME IN STAG
• FIRST LADY: GAY FOOTBALL PLAYER IS ‘SPIRATN’
• MISSOURI FOOTBALL PLAYER MICHAEL SAM SAYS HE IS GAY, AIMS TO BE FIRST PUBLICLY GAY PLAYER NFL
• OBAMA NGRATULAT MICHAEL SAM, FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER DRAFTED BY NFL
• COLLEGE FOOTBALL STAR ANNOUNC HE’S GAY
• MICHAEL SAM BE FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER DRAFTED BY NFL TEAM

BEFORE CARL NASSIB, MICHAEL SAM WAS THE NFL’S FIRST OPENLY GAY DRAFT PICK. HE NEVER PLAYED A REGULAR SEASON GAME.

Seven years before Las Vegas Rairs fensive end Carl Nassib beme the first active NFL player to e out as gay on Monday, an all-Amerin om the Universy of Missouri risked a promisg reer wh a public claratn. “I am an openly proud gay man, ” Michael Sam, a 24-year-old fensive end, told ESPN and the New York Tim Febary announcement followed a surprisg 12-2 season for Missouri, which won the SEC East and then the Cotton Bowl as Sam was named the SEC fensive player of the year. On Tuday, Sam thanked Nassib for jog the ranks of LGBTQ football players, payg special tribute to the donatn Nassib ma to the Trevor Project, a nonprof foced on suici Vegas Rairs fensive end Carl Nassib announced June 21 on Instagram that he is gay, makg him the first active NFL player to e out.

The NFL particular had faced cricism for allegedly askg prospects about their sexual orientatn and had been acced of hamperg players who spoke out favor of gay many profsnal athlet around the world, cludg several retired NFL players, had e out by 2014, no one who was still playg football had dared to make that move before story rurfaced on Monday when the 28-year-old Nassib, who was drafted by the Cleveland Browns 2016 and now plays for the Rairs, announced that he is gay a vio on Instagram. “Here’s the tth: Everyone ow Michael Sam such a b of gratu, ” Wa Davis, a former NFL rnerback who me out as gay 2012, told The Washgton Post on Monday. He wasn’t the only gay man who stggled to fd a place the NFL after g retired NFL players have publicly intified as gay, begng wh Dave Kopay, who me out 1975, three years after leavg the sport.

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTVioThe fensive leman om the Universy of Missouri spoke publicly about his sexual orientatn and uld bee the first openly gay player the Natnal Football Francis Peters for The New York TimFeb. “I’m gay, ” he said.

N.F.L. PROSPECT MICHAEL SAM PROUDLY SAYS WHAT TEAMMAT KNEW: HE’S GAY

Sam set himself on a path to bee the first publicly gay player the Natnal Football League. And he is dog so as he prepar to enter a league wh an overtly macho culture, where ntroversi over homophobia have attracted recent the pace of the gay rights movement has accelerated recent years, the sports dtry has changed relatively ltle for men, wh no publicly gay athlet the N. Sam uld bee a symbol for the untry’s gay rights movement or a flash pot a football culture war — or Sam, 24, is projected to be chosen the early rounds of the N.

In the past year or so, has been embroiled ntroversi rangg om antigay statements om players to reports that suts asked at least one prospective player if he liked girls. Recently, Chris Kluwe, a punter, said that he was subject to homophobic language om ach and phed out of a job wh the Mnota Vikgs bee he volly supported same-sex marriage laws. And last week, Jonathan Vilma, a New Orleans Sats lebacker, said an terview wh NFL Network that he did not want a gay teammate.

But has never had a publicly gay the s, some players the major sports leagu did ltle to nceal their sexual orientatn, but they were not out to the public durg their reers.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL STAR MICHAEL SAM: 'I'M AN OPENLY, PROUD GAY MAN'

Player John Amaechi 2007, both nsired pneers by many gay sprg, Jason Colls, a 12-year N. A ee agent, he has not been signed by another last year, Robbie Rogers, a former member of the Uned Stat natnal soccer team who later played profsnally England, revealed that he was gay after he announced his retirement.

All have been supportive of his g out, he Sam said he began to wonr if he was gay his early teens, though he had a girliend high school. It was after he arrived at Missouri 2009 that he realized for certa that he was gay. Washgton that the iend was gay and asked Mr.

MIZZOU PLAYER SAYS HE IS GAY, COULD BE FIRST OPENLY GAY NFL PLAYER

”Last April, the Missouri athletic admistratn held diversy semars for all athlet, part of the You Can Play project, foced largely on lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr issu. One teammate, he said, acpanied him to a gay pri event St. Louis last summer, and others went wh him to gay bars.

MICHAEL SAM, LLEGE FOOTBALL STAR AND TOP NFL PROSPECT, SAYS HE’S GAY

“Some people actually jt uldn’t believe I was actually gay, ” Mr.

Loosely lobbed homophobic remarks sudnly had a specific Sam played down that, too. “I knew that I was gay. And I knew that I was Michael Sam, who’s a Mizzou football player who happens to be gay.

If someone on the street would have asked me, ‘Hey, Mike, I heard you were gay; is that te? “I gus they don’t want to ask a 6-3, 260-pound fensive leman if he was gay or not, ” Mr. Prospect Proudly Says What Teammat Knew: He’s Gay.

MIZZOU'S MICHAEL SAM SAYS HE'S GAY

A Universy of Missouri star projected to be drafted to the NFL looks set to bee the first publicly gay pro football fensive leman Michael Sam said he told his teammat and ach last year, “I’m gay, " acrdg to terviews wh The New York Tim and on ESPN's "Outsi the L" program on Sunday.

FOR OPENLY GAY FOOTBALL PLAYER, COMG OUT CAME IN STAG

"I am an openly, proud gay man, " Sam told reunted tellg his teammat at Missouri at a preason practice. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP fileOther pro athlet who have said they are gay clu Jason Colls, a veteran of 12 NBA seasons who me out last year but has not played on a team sce.

FIRST LADY: GAY FOOTBALL PLAYER IS ‘SPIRATN’

Robbie Rogers, a Major League Soccer midfielr wh the Los Angel Galaxy, also has said he was Sam would be the first active openly gay NFL told ESPN the trial ahead pal agast those he faced growg up Texas. "Tellg the world I'm gay is nothg pared to that. "Support for Sam’s public announcement me swiftly om several, a natnal lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr advocy group rpond to the news Sunday night.

"Wh acceptance of LGBT people risg across our asts — our schools, church, and workplac — 's clear that Ameri is ready for an openly gay football star. ”"Wh Michael Sam’s brave step, he embolns LGBT athlet and straight alli everywhere, ” add Hudson Taylor, the founr and executive director of Athlete Ally, a nonprof group foced on endg homophobia sports. However, Dallas Cowboys and San Diego Chargers wi receiver Patrick Crayton posted on Twter that "a lot of players and execs will get asked about playg wh a gay guy and they are gog to have to lie about how they really feel.

Of tryg before all of that, before Sam me to terms wh who he is now as a 29-year-old man, wh his days on the field behd him, Sam said a short sentence that moved mountas: "I'm Michael Sam, I'm a football player, and I'm gay. Sam enterg the draft procs as an openly gay man was a lm tt for acceptance of LGBTQ+ people as full people; for Ameri's most profable men's sports leagu and how ready they were for an openly gay player; for a media so eager to get the story whout the abily to really unrstand .

MISSOURI FOOTBALL PLAYER MICHAEL SAM SAYS HE IS GAY, AIMS TO BE FIRST PUBLICLY GAY PLAYER NFL

A prospective NFL player jt told the world that he is gay. By 2014, felt like Ameri was overdue to have an openly gay man playg one of the big four Amerin athletic leagu, the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL.

In 2013 alone, Olympic diver Tom Daley, WNBA player Brtney Grer, soccer players Abby Wabach and Robbie Rogers were among at least 77 athlet to e out, acrdg to know, of urse, that Sam wouldn't be the only gay man Ameri's top-tier men's sports -- jt the only out one.

The implitns of havg a gay or bisexual man playg at the top level of Amerin sports was not lost on anyone at the time. Erik Hall, then a grad stunt and sports reporter for the Missourian, rattled off everyone he uld rell who knew Sam was gay. They saw me as 'he was all-Amerin and he's gay.

OBAMA NGRATULAT MICHAEL SAM, FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER DRAFTED BY NFL

"Instead, he said, "They jt foced on gay, gay, gay, gay, gay. The year before Sam told the world he was gay, had been revealed that potential NFL rooki were still fieldg tsive, homophobic qutns durg the recg procs (as of 2018, they still may have been). "I thk is hard if you're a gay or bisexual or queer profsnal athlete, " Barn said.

'"The NFL -- and men's profsnal sports general -- seemed to be fairly ready for a gay man to play but they also weren't.

"At the time, the way the "distractn" label was placed on Sam was as though the fact that he was gay and of self was a distractn to any prospective team.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL STAR ANNOUNC HE’S GAY

"When you talk to athlet who aren't out, they will tell you they don't want to be a 'gay football player, ' they want to be a 'football player who also happens to be gay, '" Davis explaed. "And that is a distctn for someone who has been playg this sport that has been their domant inty before they knew they were gay, for many of them.

MICHAEL SAM BE FIRST OPENLY GAY PLAYER DRAFTED BY NFL TEAM

Davis says he got a ll om head ach Jeff Fisher almost immediately after Sam did; Fisher need guidance on what uld mean to have Ameri's first openly gay player as a rookie on his team. By the time he tweeted this, his football reer had been over for a the College Athlete Vers Sam the Pro AthleteBack when Sam me out to his llege teammat the summer of 2013, the amount of support he had was unter to every stereotype you uld thk of when to homophobia and sports. It's the headle that is burned my bra: "Michael Sam, Our Great Gay Hope.

"So this leav wh an asterisk next to Sam's name the rerd books and profsnal roster upon profsnal roster whout one openly gay or bisexual man's name. But wh nversatns wh other people the gay muny, there has been a perceived chillg effect on other profsnal athlet g out. "What I believe is different now, is that athlet if they personally intify as gay, you will see more athlet tweetg and openly embracg this athlete, whereas before, when he was drafted was crickets.

'"Hall recently terviewed Kyle Goodw, a gay diver om Sam's alma mater, Mizzou. "He said Michael Sam was a huge fluence on him g out, " Hall Hall and Barn agree that a shift toward acceptg a gay player might be generatnal.