BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY Michael Alan Sam, Jr. (born January 7, 1990)[1] is an American football defensive end for the St. Louis Rams of the National Football League (NFL). He attended the University of Missouri, where he played college football for the Missouri Tigers footballteam for four years.
Sam attended Hitchcock High School in Hitchcock, Texas, where he played football. Recruited by a number of colleges, he accepted a scholarship with Missouri. He was a consensus All-American and the Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Year as a senior.
After completing his college football career, Sam publicly came out as gay. He was selected by St. Louis in the seventh round, with the 249th overall pick, of the 2014 NFL Draft, becoming the first publicly gay player to be drafted in the league. If he plays in the league, he will also become the first active NFL player to have publicly come out.
High school
Sam attended Hitchcock High School in Hitchcock, Texas. He began traveling with the school's varsity American football team while in the eighth grade as a water boy. He later became a member of the team, playing both defensive end and offensive tackle.[2]
He earned first-team All-District honors as a defensive lineman in all four years of high school, and as an offensive lineman in his junior and senior years.[3] As a senior, Sam drew attention for his strong performance against Michael Brockers in a game against Chávez High School; Brockers, an All-American, had accepted a scholarship to Louisiana State University.[2][4]
Out of high school, Sam was considered a two-star college football recruit by Rivals.com.[2][5] He received scholarship offers from Arizona State University, Colorado State University, and the University of Houston, but he wanted to attend Texas A&M University, and waited for a scholarship offer from them.[6]
College career
Sam accepted a scholarship offer from the University of Missouri (Mizzou), after he was recruited by Craig Kuligowski, the team's defensive line coach. Kuligowski recruited other players near Hitchcock, which made him familiar with Sam.[6] Sam attended the school from 2009 to 2013. He played for the Tigers, competing in the Big 12 Conference. Heredshirted in his first year at Missouri, and recorded 3.5 quarterback sacks, 24 tackles, including seven tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, one interception and one blocked kick as a redshirt freshman.[2][6] In his sophomore year, Sam intercepted a tipped pass in a game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders, which secured a victory to make Mizzou bowl eligible.[7] In 2012, Mizzou transferred to the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Sam registered 31⁄2 sacks while starting in nine of the team's games.[8]
As a senior in 2013, Sam recorded 11.5 quarterback sacks and 19 tackles for a loss. He led the SEC in both categories, and tied Missouri's single-season record for sacks.[9] He was named the SEC Defensive Player of the Week in two consecutive weeks, after recording three sacks apiece in games against the Arkansas State Red Wolves and theVanderbilt Commodores.[10] After the season, Sam was named the SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Year, with C. J. Mosley of the University of Alabama,[11] and a first-team all-SEC selection.[12]
Sam was named a first-team All-American by the Walter Camp Football Foundation, Associated Press, Sporting News, the American Football Coaches Association, and theFootball Writers Association of America.[13][14][15][16] He was also named a semifinalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award, the Hendricks Award, and the Lombardi Award.[2][13]Missouri played in the 2014 Cotton Bowl Classic, in which Sam forced a fumble that was returned for a touchdown, securing Missouri's victory over the Oklahoma State Cowboys.[17]
During his college career, Sam accumulated 123 tackles, including 36 for loss, 21 sacks, six forced fumbles and two intercepted passes.[18] He graduated from Missouri in December 2013.[19] He participated in the 2014 Senior Bowl in January 2014; considered too small to play as a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL), he played as an outside linebacker. Sam struggled at the new position.[20]
Professional career
2014 NFL Draft
Early projections had Sam as a third- or fourth-round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft.[21] However, his performance in the NFL Scouting Combine in February 2014 was seen as disappointing, which lowered expectations on whether or not he would be taken in the draft.[22] He was seen as too small to play defensive end and too slow to play outside linebacker.[23] He showed improvement at a public workout a month later, but his pre-draft rankings ranged from 12th to 25th among defensive ends. At the 2013 draft, 33 defensive ends were selected overall, with 23 taken in the final four rounds.[24]
| Ht | Wt | Arm length | Hand size | 40-yd dash | 10-yd split | 20-yd split | 20-ss | 3-cone | Vert | Broad | BP | Wonderlic | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 ft 2 in | 261 lb | 333⁄8 in | 93⁄8 in | 4.92 s | 1.75 s | N/A s | N/A s | N/A s | 25.5 in | 9 ft 6 in | 17 reps | N/A | |||||||
| All values from NFL Combine[25] | |||||||||||||||||||
St. Louis Rams
Sam was drafted by the St. Louis Rams in the seventh round, with the 249th overall selection, of the 2014 draft. He became the first publicly gay player to be drafted into the NFL.[26][27] In a statement, President Barack Obama said that he "congratulates Michael Sam, the Rams and the NFL for taking an important step forward today in our Nation's journey" and that "[f]rom the playing field to the corporate boardroom, LGBT Americans prove everyday that you should be judged by what you do and not who you are."[28][29]
Personal life
Sam is the seventh of eight children born to JoAnn and Michael Sam, Sr. His parents separated when he was young.[4] As a child, Sam watched one of his older brothers die from a gunshot wound. Another older brother has been missing since 1998, and his other two brothers are both imprisoned. A sister who was born before him died in infancy.[30] At one point in his childhood, Sam lived in his mother's car.[4] He was once accidentally maced by police who were arresting one of his brothers.[31]
Sam argued with his mother over playing football, as she did not agree with those pursuits. Sam often stayed with friends while in high school; the parents of a classmate gave him a bedroom in their house and had him complete household chores.[4] Sam is the first member of his family to attend college.[19][30]
In August 2013, Sam took the opportunity of a team introduce-yourself session to inform his Missouri teammates that he was gay, and found them supportive.[30] He avoided talking to the media to avoid addressing rumors of his sexuality.[6][13] He came out to his father a week before coming out publicly. The New York Times wrote that his father, a self-described "old-school ... man-and-a-woman type of guy", said "I don’t want my grandkids raised in that kind of environment."[4] His father told the Galveston Daily News that he was "terribly misquoted", though The Times maintained that he was quoted "accurately and fairly."[32]
On February 9, 2014, he announced that he was gay in an interview with Chris Connelly on ESPN's Outside the Lines, becoming one of the first publicly out college football players.[30] At the time, no active player had ever come out publicly in NFL history.[19][30] Anonymous NFL executives told Sports Illustrated that they expected Sam to fall in the draft as a result of his announcement.[33] Those statements causedNational Football League Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith to respond that any team official who anonymously downgrades Sam is "gutless".[34] From jail, his brother Josh said "I'm proud of him for not becoming like me. I still love him, whatever his lifestyle is. He's still my brother and I love him."[31]
The week after his announcement, Sam returned to Missouri with the Tigers football team to accept the 2014 Cotton Bowl championship trophy at a ceremony held at the halftime of a Missouri Tigers basketball game at Mizzou Arena. It was the first visit to his alma mater since he came out as gay. Anti-gay activist Shirley Phelps-Roper and about 15 other members of the Westboro Baptist Church, an organization widely considered a hate group, protested his appearance. Students organized a counter-protest numbering in the hundreds if not thousands,[a] assembling a "human wall" in front of the protesters.[38]
After signing with the Rams, Sam's emotional reaction to his draft was caught on camera, during which he kissed his boyfriend, Vito Cammisano. Reported to have been dating Sam for several months, Cammisano is a native of Texas, and a fellow alum of the University of Missouri who had been a member of the schools swim team.[39]
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