Former Missouri Tiger football player Michael Sam is a sure-fire high draft pick for the NFL. He was a first-team All-American. He was the 2013 Defensive Player of the Year in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), widely considered the nation’s best football conference. Voted the team’s Most Valuable Player for this past season Sam has the size, physical gifts and intangibles that NFL teams crave.
Yet Sam’s biggest feat might be becoming the first-ever player from college to announce that he is gay and are drafted into the NFL.
Sam came out on national TV to announce that he is a homosexual. However, the defensive superstar actually told his Tigers teammates last August and he said he was extremely gratified by the team’s positive reaction, enabling him to have the mindset needed to become one of the most feared and talked about defensive players in the country.
His choice to announce his sexual orientation on ESPN and to the New York Times this past weekend has inspired many and angered some, particularly former NFL wide receiver Michael Crayton. Crayton went off on a rant on Twitter about Sam’s public pronouncements and engaged in verbal fisticuffs with other Twitter users.
Take a look at what Crayton and other celebrities had to say about Michael Sam:
. @MikeSamFootball You’re the epitome of a leader! Thanks for showing others how to be a real man.
— Lance Bass (@LanceBass) February 10, 2014
I am from SE Iowa so Missouri is my natural enemy but if I’d known about Michael Sam I would’ve rooted for them once or twice this year.
— Tom Arnold (@TomArnold) February 10, 2014
I love that the first openly gay NFL player is a total badass. #MichaelSam
— Tom Arnold (@TomArnold) February 10, 2014
“@AdamSchefter: Missouri DE Michael Sam, a projected mid-round pick, said today he’s gay. Story now on ESPN2.” Stay in the closet and keep
— patrick crayton (@pcrayton12) February 10, 2014
