Sunday, May 11, 2014

Michael Sam: "I Should've been drafted in the first three rounds"

CBS Sports - "Former Missouri defensive end Michael Sam became the first openly gay player in NFL history to be drafted when the Rams took him with the 249th pick on Saturday, but Sam almost didn't make history because he almost fell out of the draft."
Sam was taken with the eighth-to-last pick, meaning he almost wasn't drafted at all, something he found rather shocking. The NFL's first openly gay player said he should've been picked higher.
Whatever happened to "I'm just Happy to be here"?

Here are selected quotes from the USA today story "What took so long for Michael Sam to be drafted"?
Remember, sometimes it's all about image.

Had it not happened, if Rams GM Les Snead and coach Jeff Fisher not decided to draft the prospect who made his mark across the state in Columbia, Mo., about 125 miles away, it may have been a long, long time before a person came out in the manner that Sam did.

"This is a football decision," Fisher said. "We are very, very comfortable with everything about him."

Yet amid all of the back-slapping for the NFL, there's an essential question:

Why did it take so long?
Never mind that this is the first time an eligible for the draft player come out as a gay man. What would gay activists have the NFL do, in the absence of an out of the closet NFL prospect?
Why did Sam have to wait until a team used what is generally regarded as a throwaway pick?

Sam demonstrated great courage in revealing before the NFL scouting combine in February — under the pressure of being outed — that he was openly gay.

He also made an apparent great sacrifice.
The way I see it, this "story" is more about the condemnation of other people (the wrong kind of people now) who didn't make it happened whenever it was that it should've happened, rather than a celebration for a gay guy making a team.

61 comments:

edutcher said...

5 will get you 10 he spends a lot of time doing more "community outreach" than playing.

OTOH, one Rams WR posted a straight sex vid, so how popular is the decision in the (gasp) locker room?

Chip S. said...

Nate Silver only gave him a 50-50 chance of being drafted at all.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

He better not suck on the field, because that is all that matters in the NFL.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

I am sure he can cry on Richie Incognito's shoulder if he gets cut.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Why did Sam have to wait until a team used what is generally regarded as a throwaway pick?

It's difficult enough for a team to keep some of these men out of jail, domestic violence scrapes, restraining order violations, while attempting to focus them on winning.

AllenS said...

He has a white boy friend. What a scandal!

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I would like to know what the Rams asked in exchange.

Shouting Thomas said...

Gay! Gay! Gay!

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The way I pictured it when it started to look like nobody was picking him, somebody hit the panic button and the NFL called for a huddle.

Nobody is leaving until somebody agrees to take this guy to the prom ;)

Who's it going to be?

Shouting Thomas said...

We long ago left behind tolerating gaydom.

We are now supposed to promote and encourage gaydom.

Tiresome bullshit.

Unknown said...

Drudge headline was over the top. Why not just say "Ramming the man parts" and get it over with.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

If this guy ever makes it big... (no pun intended) he should thank Matt Drudge.

Nobody will say it. Journos only remember Drudge to criticize him and to blame him instead of their own shortcomings.

Drudge had his picture up and the NFL answered his call. The NFL blinked.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Drudge comes out smelling like a rose.

Unknown said...

Drudge headline just got worse. WFT? what is on that guys face?
Is this just a race to the bottom?
Get it - bottom?

Shouting Thomas said...

A football player being gay is funny. In fact, it's hilarious.

Why in the hell shouldn't people poke fun at that?

Are gays now sacred?

Shouting Thomas said...

I'm such an Old Dawg that I can remember when you could count on gay men to be funny as hell.

Now, they're all fucking dull preachers.

Well, not all.

My Filipino gay men friends still like to be funny.

Unknown said...

ST - yes - good point.

The MSM will treat this guy like a delicate field of fresh daisies.
The MSM treated Tebow like a bag of dirt.

Drudge gets out in front of it all with the culture mirror.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

"Are gays now sacred?"

The Rams are banning audio recording devices from their headquarters.

And urging the team owner to fire his mistress.

Unknown said...

My best friend in college was gay. We kept each other sane and mostly - he made me laugh. He would mock fellow gays all time, and I found myself saying - 'hey be nice'. He is an unusual guy as he didn't (still doesn't) fall into any queen or butch category. I spoz one of the reasons we hit it off.

Shouting Thomas said...

Years ago, I was a regular patron of The Ridiculous Theater in Greenwich Village. The actresses play the male roles. The actors playe the female roles.

Most of the humor was quite trenchant poking fun at the inanities of gaydom (and hetero-dom, too).

Of course, the entire male half of the troope was wiped out by AIDS.

Shouting Thomas said...

@Sixty

Yes, but the irony is that the vast majority of football players are black, and black men are as far from being politically correct as it is possible to be.

But, they do know that they must recite their assigned cliches in front of the camera.

The Dude said...

The billionaire owners are going to have their hands full keeping their slaves, er, players, in line on this issue.

Mike Pouncey of the Dolphins is currently getting reeducated.

Can you imagine the trash talking that will be directed at the poofter should he ever play in an actual game? Ha!

The Dude said...

Sorry, make that Don Jones, Pouncey was in trouble for other bad behavior.

Unknown said...

I don't feel like celebrating. I'm happy for the guy - but the obsessive obsession over sexual preferences and orientation is tired now. Can we get back to the game?

rcocean said...

When he gets cut it will be blamed on those anti-gay bigots.

But if he makes the team it will be despite the anti-gay bigots.

However, if he doesn't start - it will be because of the anti-gay bigots are keeping him down.

Jack Lambert said the QB's should start wearing dresses. Looks like he got the right thought, just the wrong position.

rcocean said...

Honestly, can people stop publicizing their sex lives? What's next, people celebrating they're into S&M, or farm animals?

rcocean said...

The "Minority" playbook states as follows:

1) If you're underrepresented - claim discrimination.

2) If you're over represented - claim you did it *despite* all the oppressive anti-x bigots. (cf: anti-semitism and "no irish need apply signs")

3) There's no statue of limitations on discrimination. So feel free to bring up Slavery, the Spanish Inquisition, Cromwell, or Wounded Knee.

4) Claim victim-hood despite your current circumstance or behavior. Bernie Maddoff - victim of antisemitism. Obama - victim of racism. Hillary! - would be president except for Misogyny.

I'm Full of Soup said...

The Drudge pic is too funny and too self-centered or a 7th round pick.

I think this kid Sam is a little too puffed up about his place in history- that is why he came out- and I doubt he will play in the NFL for more than one year.

He will be just another failed asterisk in history sorta like Obama will be. NTTIAWWT.

Chip Ahoy said...

It is snowing in Denver all morning.

And that is hardly at all gay. It has reakedxxxx reekedxxxxx wrekedxxxx reckedxxxx made havoc for my little Spring terrace garden and it is time to initiate thinking about starting to contemplate beginning to consider immanentizing plan C.

Trooper York said...

The thing is that this guy is not that good. He is too slow for special teams and too small to play the line. He has to play a stand up position like linebacker but he is too slow to cover out of the backfield.

He might be a good athlete among college football players but just about every player in the NFL is a physical freak who combines speed, strength and power that this guy just does not have.

The vast majority of college players do not make it to the NFL. He publicized the fact that he was gay so he could get an affirmative action slot in the draft. If they go by his ability he will be cut in training camp.

Unknown said...

CO snow in May is nothing new, but it is damaging and annoying as hell. All the trees are leafed out and many are still in full flower.

This bites.

Hey Chip - I was mistaken on the disease that is plaguing a friend of the family - his 16 year old daughter. Turns out she has Trigeminal Neuralgia. (not what you are dealing with, I think.)
Rare in children. Usually hits adults.
There are only a few docs around the US who understand how to deal with it. So they flew her to CA to have the surgery. She felt great for a while, then re-lapsed into the pain, though it was different. (which was good) Happy to report that she has been pain free for the last 3-4 days.
The pain is so horrible, they call it the "suicide disease."

Chip Ahoy said...

In other non gay news I was looking for new pop-up books to buy and came across Dragons and Monsters and thought, Dude, make sure you didn't already buy that, like last time.

Turns out I did!

I do not recall examining its pages and I would have remembered that. Because the book is outstanding.

How is it I bought a book, put it up on the bookshelf without even looking inside? This remains an unsolved mystery.

I must have bought two books, read one, with the idea of returning to the second. That's the only thing I can think of. You can tell when a pop-up book is first-read, the pages need a bit of help.

But I noticed the centaur on the first sub pop-up (secondary to a main pop-up, little books within the book to fill the spaces left by the main pop-up on both sides) is not standing up.

It is a complicated set of mechanisms for something so small, an elaborate card on its own, and behind another one as well, so easily overlooked. Two pages tucked in there as a book in the corner of a page. The centaur is the second page. The horse portion comes up, the legs fly out, a bow lifts up with an arrow prepositioned and its forearm with the arrow all present. The lower torso is part of all that, but the upper torso is glued on wrongly so the upper torso and head remain sideways. It is totally wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. The mechanism is overly complicated with an extra support designed to make the whole thing swing into place on top of the lower torso with chiseled abdomens, that also swings into place, supplying the upper arm needed for the bow. You can see what the designer had in mind but the assembly of it is misdone.

This caused my mind to become troubled.

I checked YouTube. Three videos promoting the book. One actually does show that their copy is wrongly assembled too.

It looks like the centaur's torso is cut off and he's taking a shot leaning sideways behind the horse portion instead of standing up tall.

So I ripped it apart, tore out the unnecessary bits, and glued his body in place. Now it works beautifully if not properly and looks great, and tucks back in as well. Plus the whole thing is simpler without the unnecessary buttressing piece.

Daring, I know, but that's how I roll.

Did I say non-gay news? Sorry, that's gay as hell.

Trooper York said...

Plus if they put him on the tight end we might have an illegal use of hands on every play.

Who needs that on their team?

edutcher said...

Sixty Grit said...

Time will tell if this cocksucker lasts any longer in the league than Tebow did.

Football has become a joke. It now combines the worst elements of professional wrestling, NASCAR and the political correctness of the farthest left universities in the nation.


You forgot our finest correctional institutions.

Trooper York said...

The thing is that this guy is not that good. He is too slow for special teams and too small to play the line. He has to play a stand up position like linebacker but he is too slow to cover out of the backfield.

Hate to say it, but I had a feeling that might be the case.

But now the Gaystapo can't demand more huddling in the huddle.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Our society has become a weird mixture of prudes who shudder at all kinds of ridiculous improprieties (like the Victorians fainting at the sight of table legs which might inspire lewd thoughts of real ladies legs)..... while at the same encouraging, promoting and indoctrinating the worst kinds of hedonism, debauchery, sexual perversions.

Yay gays and butt f*cking. Teach the children about fisting and masturbation before they can even read. Then.... OMG the horror of displaying the American flag. It might offend some illegal criminals.

Woo hoo bearded transvestite singer wins! How DARE Tebow actually pray to a God and hold Christian values.

We have become a nation of scolding purse faced nannies finding fault in every little utterance that they don't like....and a nation of immoral, cowards who bend over backwards to facilitate perversion.

I am glad that I'm going to be gone in 20 years. I don't want to live in this bizarro world anymore. I fear for my grandchildren.

Titus said...

Someone wrote something about judges siding with gays because they don't want their grandchildren to hate them.

there is truth to that.

Titus said...

gay for oldies can be a difficult and disgusting thing to think about.

youngies don't fucking give a shit about the gays.

sakredkow said...

The way I see it, this "story" is more about the condemnation of other people (the wrong kind of people now) who didn't make it happened whenever it was that it should've happened, rather than a celebration for a gay guy making a team.

I'm happy for the gay guy making the team.

Trooper York said...

What's the big deal. There are a lot of gay guys playing in the NFL.

They just don't want a spot just because they are gay.

Aaron Rodgers is playing because he is a good (if overrated) quarterback not just because he is gay.

Shut up and play.

The Dude said...

Jerry Smith, gay, Redskin, HIV positive, closeted and dead. Seriously, this stuff has been going on for at least 30 years.

Were he alive today would he be in more trouble for being on a team with a "racist" name or for remaining closeted?

Titus said...

Aaron Rodger and Ryan Braun-definitely gay-it's in the eyes.

They will cum out in 10 years after retirement.

Aridog said...

Just for the record (I don't have much use for league centric pro-sports)...BUT a guy doesn't "make the team" just because he was drafted. All he gets is the opportunity and some money...with many conditions stipulating achievement.

Aridog said...

I should amend that last remark...I DO get a kick out of the Yankees and Red Sox fandango. It's better than the WWE "smackdown!" And, yeah, I do watch a Tiger's baseball game now and then...when they play the damn Yankees. :-))

Unknown said...

Excellent reminder, Ari.

He could be cut. He could excel. All of these players get put thru their paces because the level of competition is peak.

But as rcocean reminds us @1:40

When he gets cut it will be blamed on those anti-gay bigots.

But if he makes the team it will be despite the anti-gay bigots.

Aridog said...

Oh, and the gay thing? I. Do. Not. Care. If Sam thinks he should have been drafted in the third round or better...he's a funny guy...when he owns a club he might have standing to say that, now...he so funny.

William said...

You don't know how it will work out until it works out. He'll get a better press than he deserves and probably more locker room hassles than he deserves. If he demonstrates a level of competence, he'll make the team. If not, not.....I don't look to the NFL for moral guidance or role models. They've got wife beaters and wife swappers so a gay man actually ups the aggregate average of their sexual morality. I look forward to the day when a foot fetishist can announce his orientation and still make the draft.

Trooper York said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Trooper York said...

The NFL is a meat market. He didn't show anything in the combines so he didn't move up in the draft. They analyze every little thing in the draft process. This guy is just not that good. He is trying to ride the gay thing into a roster spot.

Sort of what Jason Collins did in basketball. He got a spot at the end of the bench when his career is over by coming out. It's the new normal.

Trooper York said...

Listen he is just not good enough. He is not fast enough to be a linebacker and not big enough to be a lineman. Speed is the thing. He can make up for a lack of size with blazing speed.

He is not Lawrence Taylor.

More like Opie Taylor.

sakredkow said...

I look forward to the day when a foot fetishist can announce his orientation and still make the draft.

Why wouldn't someone just keep that shite to themselves?

Icepick said...

Well, it's already possible to be a foot fetishist and coach in the NFL....

TrooperYork said...

That's the Jets. That doesn't count as the NFL.

I mean they just went out and got a dog murderer for their starting QB.

Shouting Thomas said...

youngies don't fucking give a shit about the gays.

Don't worry, Titus, the next generation of youngies will find a way to make you feel obsolete and old fashioned.

That's their job. Happens every generation.

ndspinelli said...

ChipS, I read Silver's piece and read Jon "Chucky" Gruden's assessment. By what they said he got drafted about where he should have..borderline late round/undrafted free agent.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Chip S. said...
Nate Silver only gave him a 50-50 chance of being drafted at all.


When did Nate Silver become an accepted authority on the right?

Trooper York said...

Well when he gets stuff right you should listen to him. He sort of proved himself in the last election. So until he lies for partisan purposes we should listen to him.

Don't you agree?

Or do you only accept his polls when it validates your prejudices?

Meade said...

Congratulates to Michael Sam on being the first openly gay player drafted by NFL.

The Dude said...

"Congratulates to"?

Drunk again, I see.

ndspinelli said...

Sixty, Bloody Mary Sunday.

The Dude said...

Alkies gotta be alkies, I suppose.

Aridog said...

Sixty Grit .... Heh :)