This is exactly what I was afraid of and why I begged and pleaded with the media to just talk about Michael Sam as a football player and ease up on calling him the 1st openly gay football player or worrying about his shower habits.
I don’t think the majority NFL teams and players care about a player’s sexuality. There are plenty of gay NFL players and their teammates know about it. Michael Sam made a mistake with the Oprah fiasco, but from that point on he has been trying to just focus on getting better as a football player, but the media wouldn’t allow it, so it is giving teams an excuse not to sign him.
GM tells me: "Teams want to sign Michael Sam but fear the media attention." To me, that's cowardice. But that's just me.
— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) September 1, 2014
I agree with Freeman, that teams should just care about getting the best players on the field, but even that becomes an issue
I call it the Tebow Syndrome. When a backup or someone who isn’t a main contributor is the most popular player on your team, that can cause chemistry issues even if the player isn’t doing anything wrong. That is why Tebow is currently doing Steve Spurrier impressions on the SEC Network.
I saw enough of Sam to know he has a skill set to be on someone’s roster, no one is questioning that. Most teams can benefit from an extra pass rusher and I hope he gets an opportunity. When you are looking to cast blame, the finger should be pointed at the media who didn’t treat him like a football player, but who turned him into a Kardashian for ratings.