# Top college football prospect \[Michael Sam\] comes out

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-college-football-prospect-michael-sam-comes-out/680939>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [February 10, 2014, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-college-football-prospect-michael-sam-comes-out/680939 "2014-02-10T02:31:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 103

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**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2014, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-college-football-prospect-michael-sam-comes-out/680939/103 "2014-02-11T16:22:30Z")

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So Michael Sam, defensive end at Missou and SEC Defensive Player of the Year, is gay. He let his team know in August (although he says they pretty much all knew already), and Missou has been officially quite supportive (although at least one teammate has [suggested](https://twitter.com/E_Waters81/status/432721420364181504)that support in the locker room has not been all that great).

As **kunilou** points out in another thread, Sam’s draft prospects might have dropped as a result of his coming out:

> [@No, the free market will not protect civil rights (or 'why the Civil Rights Act is still needed)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-the-free-market-will-not-protect-civil-rights-or-why-the-civil-rights-act-is-still-needed/680982/133):
>
> On Monday, it was widely predicted that Sam’s [prospects](http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/nfl-draft-scout/24438468/nfl-draft-distraction-not-sexual-orientation-could-trigger-sams-fall) in the [NFL draft](http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20140209/michael-sam-draft-stock/) would [drop considerably](http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=10430378&s=espn). And the lower the place in the draft, the lower the contract.

Now, third round isn’t exactly superstar material, but for a defensive end it’s not awful. And while some folks might suggest that

> [@No, the free market will not protect civil rights (or 'why the Civil Rights Act is still needed)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-the-free-market-will-not-protect-civil-rights-or-why-the-civil-rights-act-is-still-needed/680982/134):
>
> He’s not that great a player

despite being an All-American and, again, the SEC Defensive Player of the Friggin’ Year in one of Missou’s best seasons in decades, it seems pretty clear to me that any drop in his draft prospects will be a direct result of his coming out.

But I might be wrong.

So what say y’all? Is Sam going to face a lower draftday paycheck for being out? Will there be a team or a coach willing to embrace the inevitable, potential fallout be damned?

And hell, since I’m on the subject, is this the thin end of the wedge for out queer players in the NFL?

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