Last week we released a Marist Poll that looked at the NFL draft. In particular, we looked at what football fans thought would happen to Michael Sam, whether the fact that he came out would affect where a team might select him. Overwhelmingly, 65% of football fans thought his sexual orientation would have no impact on where the defensive lineman from Missouri would be selected. Only 25% though it would make teams less likely to pick him.
As the world knows by now, Michael Sam was selected by the St. Louis Rams with the 249th pick in the 7th and final round of the NFL draft. This is far below earlier expectations that had him as high as the third round and certainly stand in contrast with his 2013 SEC defensive player of the year commendation. But the NFL is a strange place, and I’m only talking about the football part. Teams draft on compartmentalized skill sets, not awards. Texas Longhorn Jackson Jeffcoat, college football’s defensive end of the year, went undrafted, as did every other prospect from UT, the first time that’s happened since 1938. So whether it’s relevant or not, college prominence doesn’t always equal NFL value. And it certainly doesn’t mean NFL success – just see Brian Bosworth for that lesson.
The Rams seemed happy to have Sam, and the league certainly was happy to have him as well, as the PR spin would have been tough even for one of the best machines on the planet. While the NFL may have hoped him picked higher, 7th round is a lot happier ending than free agent pickup, even if that may have been better for Sam’s overall playing prospect, allowing him to go to the team more of his own choosing.
From here, Michael Sam’s talents will largely be judged by their merits. While it’s impossible to ignore the possibility of bigotry in a team front office, the reality is that Michael Sam will probably make the team, which is different than being drafted by the team, because of what he can or can’t do on the field of play. Pro teams have long shown they care far more about an athlete’s performance than their personal life. I’d guess any GM takes a convict over a minister if he’s got a better vertical leap. So, not being a football scout, my own analysis of Michael Sam’s prospect is no better than anyone else’s and really only reflects what we’ve all seen ad nauseum on ESPN.
But the story here isn’t his impact on the football field, which will be somewhere between none and a lot. The story is how this impacts everything else, because no matter what anyone else says, Michael Sam was not just another football pick, even if his placement was. That became clear the moment he was selected, when Sam hugged and kissed his boyfriend on national TV, which has gotten as much play as a sailor in Times Square. That coverage led to a discussion of whether it should be aired, how it should be aired, and, of course, what can you tell your children, because God knows they’ve only watch decades of bloody war on television, so of course a fleeting kiss is the worst of our problems.
That discussion, and the volumes that will follow it, will inevitably get heated, ugly, and illogical. That’s part of the process of change, which comes like a slow leak, not an explosion. But, that aside, it will get people to confront the glaring reality of our own biases and bigotry. Sports has a remarkable way of making the unspeakable part of the popular dialogue. Like it did with race starting with Jackie Robinson, like is has with gender with Billy Jean King, and like it’s now doing with Michael Sam on sexual orientation. From a football perspective, it doesn’t matter if Michael Sam is gay, straight, or otherwise, since the last time I checked they don’t give points for that. But it does matter that the world might change because Michael Sam played football. Because he might change ideas and open doors beyond the locker room. And because America may have a far more frank and open discussion about sexual orientation, since we’re watching it each and every day on national television – not in a sit com, but in the most stereotypically masculine, heterosexual space of all outside a strip club.
We’ll never know if that 65% in our Marist Poll was right about drafting Michael Sam. That’s okay. In a few years, we may all know a whole lot more.
Keith Strudler is the director of the Marist College Center for Sports Communication and an associate professor of communication. You can follow him on twitter at @KeithStrudler
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