Michael Sam, why being gay in the NFL could make his career

I have always been interested in the NFL Combine. After all, it is essentially an enormous job interview, and I have always thought it was entertaining to watch larger-than-life athletes squirm under the pressure of intense evaluation. As is the case with anyone undergoing a job interview, participants in the combine do everything they possibly can to separate themselves from their competition. Athletes typically attempt to create this separation by performing exceptionally well in the combine's physical events and just trying to not screw up in the interview, but this year Michael Sam, a defensive end out of the University of Missouri, took a very different approach. Two weeks before the combine, Sam announced that he is gay. Assuming that he is drafted in May, this will make Sam the NFL's first openly homosexual player. Personally, I was much more interested in watching Johnny Manziel attempt to explain away the diva persona he developed while partying it up at Texas A&M, but homosexuality is a hot topic right now, and the announcement became big news.

Now for those of you who do not know, Michael Sam is an undersized and one dimensional pass rusher who struggles with all forms of coverage. He really needed to bring his A game to the combine, but ultimately failed to do so. Sam preformed poorly at all of the combine's physical drills, bringing up a lot of doubts about his ability to play at the next level.  Even so, he remains one of the most talked about players in this year's draft class. ESPN and the NFL Network are absolutely buzzing with speculation about how he will be received as an openly gay athlete in the locker room, on the field, and on the draft board. Ultimately, I do not think that he has much to worry about. As Clay Matthews, an outside linebacker for the Green Bay Packers, said it in an interview with ESPN, "We don't really see race, religion, sexual orientation within the locker room. We see how guys can contribute to the team. ...I don't think it's going to effect the way he's treated." It seems that this is more or less the general consensus. There will always be people who disagree with homosexuality, but as Jason Collins proved in April of 2013, openly gay athletes can be successful in American professional sports. As a football player, Sam's success will be a result of his ability to make plays for whichever team decides to draft him. A fact that Sam and his public relations consultant, Howard Bragman, know very well.

Sam's timing and method of announcing his sexual orientation were carefully planned to get him as much media attention as possible going into the combine and the draft. Sam was probably hoping that the extra publicity would enable him to distinguish himself with an impressive combine performance, which he unfortunately failed to deliver, but there are still benefits to being the first openly gay player in NFL history. Before the combine, ESPN's football analyst Mel Kiper projected Sam to be a 4th to 6th round pick, a caliber of athlete that, after college, usually fades into anonymity. With his physical limitations, there is little chance that Sam will ever be a starter in the NFL, but coming out ensured that Michael Sam will remain in the public eye. Kiper has gone on record saying that he believes that Sam will "get as much attention, rest assured, in May as the first round pick of the team that brings him into the fold," and that publicity will make his career.

That said, there are a good number of analysts who believe that Sam's announcement has hurt his draft stock. Since Sam's disappointing performance at the NFL Combine, he has fallen from 90th to 183rd in the CBS draft prospect rankings, and sports analysts such as CBS's Rob Rang attribute that fall to his coming out. However, I must respectfuly disagree with Rang's conclusions. As Rang himself said "[Sam] was already sliding due to concerns over the dreaded 'tweener label -- with some scouts viewing him as too short for defensive end and a project to convert to stand-up linebacker following an inconsistent week at the Senior Bowl." When you add a disappointing combine performance in which he underachieved in practically every drill, scouts are bound to have concerns about his ability to play at the next level. However, Sam played too well in college to fall much farther in the rankings. Besides, there are teams out there, such as the New York Jets, who would draft him just for the publicity he would bring.

As I am not a football analyst, I have no idea in which round Sam is going to be drafted, but rest assured, he will be drafted and, regardless of how he performs in the NFL, he will always be the league's first openly gay player. Even if he rides the bench his entire time in the NFL, he would still have a career as a motivational speaker available to him at the very least. No matter what comes next, Sam's announcement has ensured that he will never be hurting for work. He has achieved more for his career in a single interview than he ever will with talent and hard work.

So what are the takeaways from this? Coming out as a homosexual is not going to be a viable publicity stunt for much longer, so what relevance does this incident have to our lives? Well, if you break it down, a celebrity coming out as a homosexual is a) a shock factor, and b) a win for gay rights activists. So really, this story just confirms what we already know - people like a little drama and a good cause. Take Angelina Jolie for instance: before she stole Brad Pitt from Jennifer Aniston and adopted a bunch of babies from third world countries, she was crazy, but now she is one of the most celebrated actresses in Hollywood. So congratulations to Michael Sam for the excellent implementation of strategic public relations. I must say, I am interested to see which team picks him up.