OPINION: Why Is The NFL Afraid Of A Gay Superstar!?

NFL_Afraid_Michael_Sam_

Pressure. A lot gets written and said about “pressure” in the NFL. This week, the St. Louis Rams proved they can’t handle the pressure of the National Football League.

Michael Sam, rookie defensive end out of the University of Missouri and the first openly gay player in the NFL, was cut from the Rams’ 53 man roster. Despite a more than impressive pre-season, Sam wasn’t selected to go any further in this NFL version of “American Idol” – where what’s popular outweighs talent. Sam had 11 tackles and a team-best 3 sacks in the his 4 pre-season games. According to Rams math, those numbers are reduced to zero when adding in the fact that Michael Sam is gay.

His alleged “opportunity” was simply the NFL running a con job by using a potential superstar who was brave enough to come out of the closet.

Let’s face some other facts. Sam never had a chance to make it. His alleged “opportunity” was simply the NFL running a con job by using a potential superstar who was brave enough to come out of the closet. Acting like this kid had a shot of making a pro team was another in a long line of frauds from the National Football League. Add this NFL scam to others like when they offered former players a paltry sum for purposely misleading them about the dangers of concussions or their annual parade of pink when the league celebrates its Tumor-Fest in October while barely 8% of their proceeds from pink gear sales actually goes to cancer research.

When Michael Sam first publicly came out of the closet weeks before this year’s NFL draft, Sports Illustrated talked to NFL GMs, Scouts and other NFL personnel about a gay player entering the league. None of whom had the guts to go on the record. They all spoke anonymously.  The opinion was that Sam had done irreparable harm to his draft stock. One unnamed assistant coach said “maturity” was too big of a problem in the locker room for this to work. Then that’s an NFL problem, not a Michael Sam problem.

With these sentiments, the plot was obviously already in motion and the conspiracy against Sam started immediately.  The first part of the plan was to humiliate Michael Sam by making the SEC Co-Defensive Player of Year sit around for 3 draft days before finally calling his name and then get rid of him before the season starts no matter how well he performed. His late late draft selection by the St. Louis Rams was dismissed as a publicity stunt. That’s what Michael Sam’s life long dream and the hard work he put into that dream were reduced to, a stunt. The St. Louis Rams did their best to perpetuate the old “straights only” tradition of picking the gay kid last in sports.

Fortunately, Michael Sam would have none of it. He performed brilliantly. Nine times in four games, he sacked, hit or hurried the quarterback. A straight player with that kind of potential and production wouldn’t have been put on waivers.

There isn’t a gay American or supporter of gay equality in this country that will buy another ticket to your games.

Despite this reeking of a set-up, I was willing to give the St. Louis Rams the benefit of the doubt. The Rams were going to be my team this season, even after a lifetime of cheering for Tampa Bay. I went as far as spending hundreds of dollars on eBay buying the fandom of a Cleveland Browns fan who was sick of his team’s losing ways to join me in cheering for the Rams.  No more St. Louis. You caved. You blew it!  There isn’t a gay American or supporter of gay equality in this country that will buy another ticket to your games. Your fabricated statement that Michael Sam had a true chance with the Rams has cost you any loyalty and trust from a very vocal minority in this nation. This con job of yours won’t be forgotten by the gay community. And for anyone arguing that this is just a business decision – this has cost the Rams business. Michael Sam had the number 2 selling jersey in the entire league. He’s a rookie that brings that kind of excitement. The Rams threw that sales opportunity away with their narrow mindedness and their plot against Sam.

ESPN tried their best to make a sideshow out Michael Sam in the NFL by actually reporting on Sam’s showering habits in the locker room and who would and wouldn’t shower next to him. Like a kid who’s scared of the circus, the clowns at ESPN scared the Rams who were afraid of becoming known as a gay team and they buckled.

At best, this was an absolute lie from Snead. His only mission was making headlines, not history

Rams head coach Jeff Fisher, the leader of the Michael Sam deception, did his best Pontius Pilate impression on Saturday. He said – “I will tell you this: I was pulling for Mike. I really was, and I don’t say that very often. Mike came in here and did everything we asked him to do.” Everything? That certainly explains why he’s not on the team. Fisher should have been washing his hands while he made that statement. It was St. Louis GM Les Snead who was also in on the fraud when he told SiriusXM Radio days after the draft that the decision to select Michael Sam was “bigger than football”. At best, this was an absolute lie from Snead. His only mission was making headlines, not history. And the NFL is not going to let anything be “bigger than football”. They won’t allow it. Especially if it means cheating a gay kid out of his dreams.

The St. Louis Rams cutting Michael Sam is like the Dodgers cutting Jackie Robinson instead of having the courage to follow up on an ideal that is more important than just sports.

I was personally attacked for being a gay man cheering for another gay man to succeed in the NFL. To some people, my being gay disqualified me from becoming a Michael Sam fan because I’m biased. Yes, I am. Like anyone else who cheers for someone because they feel a connection to them like going to the same college or facing the same obstacles. However, a gay person is the only fan not allowed to show favoritism in a sport filled with bandwagon jumpers and blind loyalty from homers to the place where they were born. I couldn’t even discuss Michael Sam on the radio without it turning to me being called every gay slur imaginable and unimaginable. Following this logic, Black people in this country in 1947 shouldn’t have been able to feel any pride in Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Robinson entering the league must have caused quite a distraction to the Brooklyn Dodgers and other MLB clubs. That’s one reason I was shocked and disappointed when former NFL coach and current elder statesman Tony Dungy said he wouldn’t draft Michael Sam because of the “distraction” he would cause. We should all be glad Tony wasn’t around to advise Branch Rickey. If not for these annoying distractions throughout history, Tony Dungy may not have had his Super Bowl moment. The St. Louis Rams cutting Michael Sam is like the Dodgers cutting Jackie Robinson instead of having the courage to follow up on an ideal that is more important than just sports. The St. Louis Rams, coach Jeff Fisher, GM Les Snead and owner Enos “Stan” Kroenke are all cowards and they have been exposed.

Like Michael Sam, I came out as gay on a national stage. I know what that moment of risk and uncertainty feels like. Also like Michael Sam, I know the support from the people who mean the most to me in the world and the ignorance of people who attack me because they’re afraid of the world changing in the 21st century. I am so proud of Michael Sam. I cried the moment he was drafted from that pride. Now I feel tears coming on from the deceit of the St. Louis Rams who got to look good while acting like they were doing the right thing and all along planning on doing the wrong one. I still feel a shocked over Michael Sam being cut by the team, although I shouldn’t. The Rams and the NFL never had any intention of letting Michael Sam in its “straights and closeted only” club. This is the same league that allows an owner headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia, to promote an ethnic slur with his team’s name each and every NFL Sunday in the name of tradition.

Despite what NFL insiders said, Michael Sam did nothing wrong in coming out. In the pre-season, he did every thing right. Maybe he was too perfect for a gay man in the NFL. Because the National Football League still isn’t grown up enough to accept a gay superstar.

 

Fez Whatley co-hosts the Ron and Fez Show, which airs on SiriusXM’s Raw Dog Comedy Hits 99 weekdays from noon to 3pm et.

 

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Fez Whatley
Fez Whatley
Fez Whatley was half of the Ron and Fez Show for 17 years . After playing a gay character while insisting he was straight for over 20 years, Fez Whatley came out to a national audience on the Ron & Fez Show on February 24, 2012. The classic radio story of a gay man playing a straight man playing a gay man. He announced his retirement on April 1, 2015 and since then has been living a private life but occasionally pops his head out of his Florida rabbit hole.