Michael Sam doesn’t have an NFL contract quite yet, but with the 2014 draft a few months away — and with the recently graduated University of Missouri defensive end expected to find a team, no problem — it’s only a matter of time until professional football has its first openly gay player.
And to that we say: Congratulations, Michael Sam, you’ve demonstrated real f*cking bravery and upheld Guy Code by being yourself. And to anyone who’d criticize him for coming out, where’s your pending NFL contract? (Also, word of advice, bullying a guy who’s 6’1″, 260 lbs is not going to end well for you.)
Actually, Missouri students knew about Sam’s orientation for a long time before the public announcement, and BroBible has a great essay by a friend of his — which we can’t recommend highly enough, so seriously, click through and give it a read — about why Mizzou’s culture was so accepting the whole time, perhaps unlike its stereotype. But hey, it’s a good week for busting stereotypes, isn’t it?
Here’s an excerpt:
“For Mizzou’s part, the response from the student body has been both incredible and completely unsurprising. Yes, we already knew he was gay, but we’re so happy that the rest of the world knows and that we get to claim him as one of our own. An article in a local newspaper today said that the scene is ‘pretty calm,’ but I don’t know what it’s talking about. Twitter and Facebook exploded last night, especially after the Westboro Baptist Church announced that they’d come on Saturday to picket a football player who doesn’t even go here anymore. Within minutes a counter protest sprang up out of nowhere, but I would expect no less from my fellow Tigers.”
MORE: “Why It Makes Sense That Michael Sam Came From Mizzou”
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