It will be a while before another seventh-round draft pick is as applauded, debated, criticized and scrutinized as much as the one taken by the St. Louis Rams on Saturday afternoon. And in the end, it almost doesn't matter whether defensive end-linebacker Michael Sam was taken at the end of the draft (249th overall, the eighth-to-last pick) or signed as a free agent immediately after it — he was still going to break a significant social barrier in this country and this league just by getting onto the field.
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Almost. It's better that an NFL team chose to embrace Sam, the first openly gay player to join the nation's most popular league. It was a statement to the world that he was welcome in the open where those before him had been welcomed in silence. It is important that instead of him searching for a team, a team gave him its stamp of approval.
The moment wasn't lost on anyone, from the fans who applauded at Radio Cty Music Hall when the pick was announced, to Sam himself, whose tears, embrace and kiss will likely be the indelible image from the third and last day of the draft. There won't be any more doubt that while he was picked to play pro football, this meant much more.
The scrutiny of Sam, his teammates and the Rams organization won't stop, of course. But as the debate over how "ready" the NFL is for a gay player, Sam continues to be judged for what he does on the field. Rams head coach Jeff Fisher told NFL Network soon after Sam was picked that he didn't anticipate issues about his sexual preference to interfere with that.
"I don't have any concern whatsoever ... We drafted a good football player," Fisher said. "I'm excited to get him on the practice field and get him going so yeah, there's gonna be a little extra tension for a couple days, but Michael was the SEC co-defensive player of the year.''
It may never be known if Sam, who had 11 1/2 sacks last season for Missouri, would have gone higher had he stayed essentially in the closet. NFL scouts, of course, likely would have learned once it began evaluating prospects after the season, since Sam was out to his college teammates — and there was the ever-present chance of him being outed against his will.
On Thursday, the first day of the draft, Sporting News' Ross Tucker raised the question of whether the NFL might encourage teams to make sure Sam didn't go undrafted.
Sam's handling of the attention surrounding his February announcement, including a press conference at the combine and the interviews with teams at his pro day, has been widely praised. The reported ease at which he and his Missouri teammates handled his coming-out to them before the season also reflected well on him.
Once he weathered the initial flood of appearances, requests, commendations and criticisms, he kept a low public profile and kept the focus on the football side of his story.
However, scouts labeled him as a "tweener" early — too small at 6-feet-2 and 261 pounds to play defensive end, his position in college, and not skilled enough to handle all the responsibilities at linebacker.
Sam did not perform well at the combine, but bettered all of his key numbers , mainly the 40 and the vertical jump, at his pro day in March, and he shook off a hamstring tweak to finish the workout.