Michael Sam: NFL Draft Prospect Comes Out As Gay

Missouri defensive end Michael Sam told The New York Times and ESPN he is gay, and the 2014 NFL Draft prospect plans to become the first openly gay player in the NFL.

"I just want to make sure I could tell my story the way I want to tell it," Sam told The Times. "I just want to own my truth."

"I am an openly, proud gay man," Sam told ESPN.

"I understand how big this is," he said. "It's a big deal. No one has done this before. And it's kind of a nervous process, but I know what I want to be ... I want to be a football player in the NFL."

The 24-year-old Sam, who just completed his senior season at Missouri, was among the top pass rushers in the SEC last year with 10.5 sacks, boosting his NFL draft stock despite his lack of size for the defensive end position (6-foot-2, 255 pounds).

The NFL released a statement in support of Sam on Sunday night: "We admire Michael Sam's honesty and courage. Michael is a football player. Any player with ability and determination can succeed in the NFL. We look forward to welcoming and supporting Michael Sam in 2014."

According to The Times, Sam first told Missouri teammates L'Damian Washington and Marvin Foster about his sexual orientation about a year ago, and announced it to the squad during a team-building exercise during the preseason last year. The University of Missouri official Twitter feed expressed support for Sam Sunday night.

"I'm not naive. I know this is a huge deal and I know how important this is," Sam said. "But my role as of right now is to train for the combine and play in the NFL."

NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport received the following reaction from a club executive: "The league is in a better place to handle this now than a few years ago given the influx of younger GM's."

Rapoport also spoke to an NFL scouting director who does not believe Sam's revelation will hurt his draft status, and that Sam projects as a late-round pick. NFL Media analyst Bucky Brooks agreed that Sam's draft status would not be affected, but Brooks projects Sam as a mid-round selection.

NFL Media's Aditi Kinkhabwala said another team's scouting director told her that he "knew for a while." When she asked if it had or would play in his evaluation, he emphatically said: "Not at all."

NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah, an ex-scout with the Cleveland Browns, Philadelphia Eagles and Baltimore Ravens, also believes Sam's draft stock will not be adversely affected.

"In my eight years in draft rooms, the subject never came up. I would expect it would not have an impact on his draft status," Jeremiah said. "In my experience with every team I was with, it was all about putting the best 53 players on the field. I don't see why that would change here."

The 2014 NFL Draft will be held May 8-10.

Due to his size, Sam is expected to be drafted by a club using a 3-4 defensive scheme and switched to outside linebacker, where his pass-rush skills can be best utilized. He played in the Reese's Senior Bowl last month and is among the Tigers' invitees to the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis later this month.

Nine of his 10.5 sacks came during a trio of three-sack performances against Arkansas State, Vanderbilt and Florida. He also recorded an assisted sack while working against Texas A&M star left tackle Jake Matthews, who is expected to be a first-round draft choice.

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The Walking Dead Recap: Carl, Rick & Michonne Learn What Comes After

After The Governor and his army destroyed The Grimes Gang’s idyllic life in prison, the ‘Walking Dead’ leads found themselves bruised, bloodied, separated, and without a home. The Feb. 9 mid season premiere, ‘After’, was all about finding a reason to go on once everything was taken away again.
What do you do when you spend years of your life navigating a post-apocalyptic hellscape, manage to find a surrogate family and comfortable life in this hellscape despite its impossible circumstances, then have that comfortable life and family brutally taken away from you, again? That’s the question the The Walking Dead‘s Season 4 mid season premiere found itself asking, and we can confirm that at least three characters have found their answer.

‘The Walking Dead’ Midseason Premiere Recap: Rick, Carl, & Michonne Move On
Oh I’m sorry, were you hoping to learn the fates of beloved characters like Daryl (Norman Reedus), Maggie (Lauren Cohan), Tyreese (Chad Coleman), and Glenn (Steven Yeun) during the mid season premiere? Because if so, you’re out of luck. Yet, thankfully, keeping it small after December’s bloodbath and focusing only on (a pretty rough-looking) Rick (Andrew Lincoln), Carl (Chandler Riggs), and Michonne (Danai Gurira) as they battled the physical and emotional fallout from the Governor’s assault was the right move. Ever since Glen Mazzara took over back in Season 2 the show has refused to shy away from potentially audience-alienating, sparsely cast, narrow-focus episodes, and many of these little experiments (see: “Clear”) have been fantastic. “After” wasn't quite on that level, but it was still a million steps up from those unfortunate Governor episodes from last fall.

So, yes, we have absolutely no clue where anyone else (including Judith) ran off to after the Governor’s assault, but we do know that Carl is majorly placing the blame for the entire situation on his father. Which, you know, I kind of get he did ignore the threat of the Governor, a confirmed violent sociopath, for the better part of a year. And when teenagers deal with intense emotions like grief a feeling that you’d think Carl would be well-versed in by now  they have a tendency to blame their parents. Therefore, while Rick was essentially dying on a tattered old couch in an Atlanta suburb throughout the entire episode, Carl went off and worked through his seven stages in the most teenage angst-y way possible.

And boy, was Chandler Riggs magnificent in conveying all of the obnoxious (but relatable) teenage emotions Carl was feeling as his world once again descended into the post-apocalyptic hellscape he’d spent three-plus seasons figuring out a way to endure. (ASIDE: Any Battlestar Galactica fans feeling direct parallels between the current abysmal Walking Dead state of affairs and the devastating fight to find a home on the former show? I kept thinking back to how Dualla “handled” things after they discovered the scorched earth after three-plus seasons; wondering why nobody on this show has taken that same step. I mean, would you blame them if they did?)

Anywho, some might criticize Carl for being a bit of a careless punk while his father was battling certain death or the writers for this (albeit temporary) character regression after The Year Of Carl but my heart shattered for the poor kid when he entered what appeared to be a young boy’s former bedroom and and stared at the big-screen TV like it was a desert oasis. For approximately fifteen seconds Carl forgot who and where he was, and when he snapped back into it and used the TV for physical protection it was pretty tragic. Brava, Riggs.

Amazingly enough, Carl was dealing with his new reality better than Michonne. After she made some new “friends” and completed the horrifying task of finishing off Hershel’s still very much alive severed Walker head (boy, they do some horribly undignified things to the human body on this show), Michonne retreated into a strange state of psychosis that finally gave the audience some insight into her back story.

Which was… fine? I guess? Michonne can say more with a scowl than Andrea ever could with ten pages of dialogue, but her flashback sequences really didn't make me feel any closer to her character. It’s very sad that she was a mother and all, and nice that she was a rich lady, but we didn't get a real feel for who she was as a person maybe, much like Daryl, it’s simply best if we stick to Michonne 2.o. She’s a lot more interesting.

As ambivalent as I was about Michonne’s flashback scenes, my heart still grew three sizes that day when she reconnected with our two boys after their heartwarming make-up sequence. Basically, after a day of stupidly wasting all of their bullets, selfishly eating ALL OF THE PUDDING, and nearly dying like six times, Carl realized that life would suck about a zillion times more than it already did without Rick, no matter how frustrating and complicated that relationship might be.

And again, hat tip to Riggs and Andrew Lincoln for bringing out all of my tears for that father-son reunion. He might not be the most celebrated dramatic actor on AMC, but boy can Lincoln sell gut-wrenching PTSD scenes like they’re Thin Mints. I was so, so relieved when Michonne finally showed up at that house and was moved to tears upon seeing that her Family 2.0 was still alive and well. On a show that’s consistently lacking in the hope department, small moments like these are crucial just like Rick, Michonne, and Carl, we viewers have to cling for dear life to any thread of hope for a better future. Because is our characters can’t find that hope, why would we even bother watching?

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