Michael Sam, the first openly gay player to enter the National Football League draft, was selected 249th overall by the St. Louis Rams in Saturday's draft, but this is in no way a testament to the current state of homophobia in professional football.
One thing is for sure: The St. Louis Rams avoided a minor public relations nightmare for the NFL by acquiring Sam with the eighth-to-last pick in the seventh round of the draft.
Had he not been drafted, a lot of questions would have been asked, most of them unpleasant.
Why was Sam, the co-defensive player of the year in the Southeastern Conference (arguably the top conference in college football), never even drafted? Why was a unanimous first-team All-American not among the 256 players selected to an NFL team? Why was a guy who recorded 11.5 sacks totally ignored in an era when rushing the quarterback is arguably the most important defensive skill?
Those questions have been narrowly avoided. Instead, another question has emerged: Why did it take so long for Sam to be drafted? Given that most seventh-round picks are a waste, did the Rams draft him just to save face in the league?
And, most poignantly, did the other 31 teams want to avoid the image of Sam kissing her boyfriend on live TV after he was ultimately drafted?
Only those in the personnel departments of the NFL's 32 teams know the answers to these questions, and any speculation beyond that is just that – speculation, because Sam was a marginal draft candidate despite his pedigree.
If Sam was viewed as a can't-miss NFL star, a player who could change the shape of a defense, teams would have had to acquire him, but most agree that his reputation was hurt as much by his poor showings at the scouting combine and pro day as by his coming out.
Sam's limitations were known even before scouting began. “He's stiff, athletic, short. He has a lot of disadvantages,” one scout told USA Today. What he does have is an incredible passion and drive. “He's relentless. A player like him can make things happen just by willing himself to do it.”
But NFL scouts are often obsessed with numbers. They like “hard numbers”: 40-yard dash time, bench press reps, vertical jump. What you did in college is almost secondary. Why? In football, the jump from college to pro means going from playing against boys to playing against men. The NFL is a brutal league, and it's becoming increasingly clear that success in college doesn't guarantee success in the pros. To survive and thrive, you have to be fast, big, and strong.
By all of these standards, Sam performed very poorly at the scouting combine, heightening scouts' concerns, and his pro day was better, but not overwhelming.
Before this scouting run, Sam was projected to be a fourth-round pick, according to Nate Silver of ESPN's FiveThirtyEight blog. He was then projected to be a sixth-round pick. In his data analysis, Silver found that a sixth-round prospect like Sam has a 50-50 chance of being selected in the draft.
Was his departure due to his performance or because he came out as gay?
While we'll never know why, his performances as a scout certainly could have contributed to him being ranked lower, but those performances may have simply given teams an excuse to avoid drafting a gay player. In an interesting article written shortly after Sam came out as gay, Sports Illustrated found that NFL executives and coaches had said that Sam's sexual orientation would hurt his draft standing.
One NFL player personnel assistant said the NFL isn't ready to accept gay players because “it would upset the chemistry of the NFL locker rooms and meeting rooms.”
There were signs of this on Saturday when Miami Dolphins player Don Jones tweeted “OMG” and “Gross” in response to Sam's on-screen kiss. The tweets were quickly deleted. But the Dolphins were at the center of a scandal last year when one of their players, Jonathan Martin, left the team after he was bullied by teammates because they viewed him as not tough enough.
This points to another potential concern for NFL executives: Sam will likely bring media attention to training camp, but is that “distraction” worth it to a lower-ranked prospect? After all, no other draft pick has ever received a congratulatory letter from President Obama.
“There will be all kinds of big names in the media, from Good Housekeeping to Today. s“How,” a former general manager said in a Sports Illustrated article, “general managers will ask themselves, 'Why would we do that to ourselves?'
In the end, many analysts say Sam ended up in perhaps the perfect place. The Rams are not far from the University of Missouri, where Sam played in college, so fans there have already embraced him. Plus, Rams coach Jeff Fisher is an old-school coach who will be able to minimize “distractions.” And Sam seems like Fisher's type of player, ESPN's Jeffrey Chadiha wrote.
“Sam is a player who thrives on passion, drive and a desire to beat his competition. Fisher has long had an affinity for players like that, and maybe that's why Sam attracted him.”
In 1946, the Rams signed Kenny Washington, the first African-American football player in the modern NFL, and Fisher acknowledged the historical resonance on Saturday.
“This is the second historic moment in the history of this franchise,” he said. “From that standpoint, from a historical standpoint, I'm honored to be a part of it.”
