After jumping ship from the NFL to Canadian Football League for a promising new start in professional football, openly gay football player Michael Sam seemed to be watching his football dreams crumble again months ago when he abruptly left the Montreal Alouettte’s training camp and then seemed to struggle to get back on track when he finally returned. Now, after weeks of waiting, Sam finally made his professional football debut with the Alouettes last week.
According to the Canadian Press, Sam hit the field for the Montreal Alouettes in their 26-23 loss to the Ottawa Redblacks. Although Sam was only used sparingly during the game, he’s now officially the first openly gay football player to actively play on a team in history.
In an interview about the game, Sam explained that he wasn’t thinking about making history when he got on the field.
“I was focusing on my assignments, actually,” Sam said. “I’m not going to lie, there were some big jitters out there and I was nervous when I first got on the field. I didn’t get any opportunities to make many plays. I had some good pass rushes I thought, but close enough is not a sack.”
At this point, making it onto the field may be a small win for Sam, but it’s a win that he hasn’t had in a long time. After being dubbed the SEC co-defensive player of the year in his senior season at the University of Missouri, Sam came out as gay and was drafted by the St. Louis Rams on national television as he kissed his boyfriend Vito Cammisano.
However, things went downhill when he was dropped by the Rams and later dropped by the Dallas Cowboys. Sam then came to CFL where he was signed by the Alouettes, but he left the team abruptly during training to tend to personal issues, which many assume was his breakup with Cammisano.
It’s clearly been a long and hard journey for Sam, but if he works hard, perhaps he can now really prove why all the talk about him being one of the best rookies last year was justified.
