When it was revealed last week that Michael Sam would be sitting down for a long-awaited interview with Oprah Winfrey for her “Oprah Prime” series, the world knew that Sam would have something powerful to say to viewers. And in a preview clip for the interview, Sam reveals that, even though he’s not with an NFL team, there are already several gay NFL players in the league.
Sam addressed the subject when Winfrey asked if other gay players in the NFL had contacted him since he came out last year.
“Very few reached out to me and pretty much just told me their gratitude and how thankful they were that I had the courage [to come out publicly],” Sam says in the above video. “They wished that they had the courage to come out.”
“Gay men in the NFL reached out to you and called you?” Oprah says.
“Yes,” Sam says. “[They] just showed their respect and admired my courage … It was very good.”
When Winfrey pressed Sam to reveal exactly how many gay men contacted him, he chose to remain mum. But he did confirm that it was indeed multiple men.
“There’s a lot of us out there. I’m not the only one. I’m just the only one who’s open,” says Sam.
We’re not surprised that there are already gay men in the NFL and whoever these men are, they aren’t the first gay men to be in the NFL either. But Sam’s interview is the first of its kind and we’re excited to see what else he has to say in his interview.
Sam’s interview airs Saturday, Dec. 27, at 10:30 p.m. ET, immediately after the 90-minute documentary “Michael Sam.”
