U Of Missouri Defensive Lineman Michael Sam Announces He Is Gay

Posted February 10, 2014 03:45 by dave-dr-gonzo

One of the season’s most impressive college athletes, a senior likely to be drafted by the NFL, comes out:

Michael Sam, coming off an All-American season as a defensive lineman for the University of Missouri Tigers, said he knows well that coming clean about his sexual orientation is a “big deal.”

“I am an openly, proud gay man,” Sam, 24, last year’s Southeast Conference defensive player of the year, said in interviews with ESPN and the New York Times.

Projected by some to be taken in the early rounds of the NFL draft this summer, Sam would become the first openly gay professional football player.

“I understand how big this is,” Sam said. “It’s a big deal. No one has done this before. And it’s kind of a nervous process, but I know what I want to be… I want to be a football player in the NFL.”