Ever since Michael Sam came out last year as the NFL’s first openly gay player, sports fans have been talking about who else in the major sports world might be part of the LGBT community. Although Sam has been adamant about respecting the wishes of any gay players that he knows about keeping their sexuality secret, he recently opened up to the press again and assured that there are many more gay athletes in the NFL.
According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Sam spoke about closeted gay players in the NFl last week during an appearance in Dallas.
“I am not the only gay person in the NFL, I’m just saying there [are] a lot of us. I respect the players that did reach out to me and had the courage to tell me that they were also gay, but they do not have the same courage as I do to come out before I even played a down in the NFL,” said Sam.
Sam also explained why he chose to come out before entering last year’s NFL draft.
“Was it a risky move?” he asked. “Yes. But at that moment, the reason why I came out is I thought it wasn’t going to be a big deal. Maybe I was naive. Maybe I thought it was 2014, and people will understand that there [are] gay NFL players. There [are] gay athletes everywhere. But I was clearly wrong. It was a huge deal.”
And according to Sam, some of those closeted athletes are more famous than people think.
“The players who have reached out to me and told me about their sexual orientation, it just means a lot,” he said. “But I will never say anything about who they are, what teams they are [on]. I’m just saying that there [are] some famous people, and I’m not the only one.”
However, one of those closeted players, who identifies as bisexual, wasn’t happy with Sam’s comments and he fired back at Sam during a recent TMZ interview. Read what the player had to say after the cut.
