If anyone has read the sports section of a newspaper or watched a sports broadcast rcently, you’d know that Michael Sam is a prospect for the NFL in April. More importantly, apparently, you’d know that Sam is openly gay.
Big congratulations and respect to the first male with the courage to be an openly gay American footballer, especially in what is arguably considered the ‘manliest’ sport in America (manliest meaning straight from public ignorance).
That’s about all I will say about a gay athlete, as I couldn’t care less of someone’s sexual preference given any circumstance.
Sadly, that is the only fact most of America knows about the defensive end from Missouri. It’s a mystery as to how many people know that Sam became the SEC Defensive Player of the Year of 2013.
Shouldn’t the media have informed us about things like that? Yes, sports broadcasters on networks such as ESPN or NFL Network have mentioned it when switching the topic to the defensive end, but was it really the point of emphasis?
Absolutely not.
Those who call themselves sports analysts have reverted to ‘TMZ-journalism’, caring only about how an openly gay athlete can ruin a locker room instead of how a talented player can increase depth or a team’s overall defence.
Michael Sam informed his teammates at Missouri he was gay before the start of his last college season.
Missouri still performed exceptionally well, and not a single person on that team showed a single sign they even had a locker room problem.
The reason being? They didn’t.
Moving forward in his football life, Sam had to out himself to the media before they hounded him during the upcoming NFL combine.
Sam made a brave (and smart) decision to own his homosexuality before the media found out and made his situation even worse.
Most likely Sam wasn’t ready to come out and, looking at the facts, the media is more to blame than the fear of treatment from locker room peers.
Steve Wyche of NFL Network discussed NFL general managers and head coaches were asked how they would set the tone or adjust the locker room if they drafted an openly gay football athlete.
NFL veterans have appeared on ESPN being interviewed about sharing a locker room with an openly gay teammate.
The questions asked hold a standard that having an openly gay male in the locker room is negative, thus creating a problem that might not have even been there in the first place.
Why Sam is an inspiration shouldn’t be because he’s come out – yes, that provides hope to other gay athletes, but how about the story of a two-star recruit from a small Texas town who made his way to a top football school and rose to become the best of what is considered one of the best divisions (SEC) in college football?
Does anyone even know that fact? Shouldn’t we rely on a team of reporters to inform us of such news?
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