A while ago, Mamamia reported on American footballer player Michael Sam – who was almost certainly going to become the first openly gay NFL player to be drafted in the states.
And now: he is.
Thank you to the St. Louis Rams and the whole city of St. Louis. I’m using every once of this to achieve greatness!! pic.twitter.com/QESdOJVzsw
— Michael Sam (@MikeSamFootball) May 10, 2014
The football player from the University of Missouri has been selected to play in the National Football League Draft, and was taken by the St. Louis Rams on Sunday.
Television cameras were filming Sam when he found out the news – and the Texas player started crying at the news, before giving his boyfriend a kiss.
Footage like this – of an openly gay football player, being intimate towards his partner – on a channel like ESPN is pretty much unheard of in the states. In fact, this is a first.
There were, of course, a flurry of negative tweets sent by people criticising ESPN’s decision to show the footage. But there were also those who openly praised the sports channel and Sam alike, for breaking down boundaries.
Yahoo wrote, “It would have been enough of an earthquake to see Sam become the first openly gay player to be drafted into the NFL, but by kissing his boyfriend on national television … Sam took a whack at an even bigger barrier to acceptance.”
When the 24-year-old football player came out in February, he said, “I’m Michael Sam. I’m a football player and I’m gay.”
“I’m comfortable with who I am,” Sam continued. “I probably may be the first but I won’t be the last and I think only good things are going to come from this.”
“I don’t think I should be defined as Michael Sam, the gay athlete, the gay football player. I want to be defined Michael Sam, for being a great person and having great character.”
Congratulations to Michael Sam. His openness and honesty in speaking about his sexuality is breaking down barriers – and his years of hard work are finally paying off.
Welcome to the NFL, @MikeSamFootball. #NFLDraft pic.twitter.com/bv3q5A2jRE
— NFL (@nfl) May 10, 2014
Top Comments
Good on him for being a leader. Pure statistics tells you there have probably been hundreds of gay players in the NFL previously, but he is breaking down barriers which will over time mean less gay kids getting bashed, harassed and often killing themselves.
That being said...it will probably also result in many confused heterosexual, impressionable kids experimenting with same sex at very young ages, because that is what they are seeing as cool or normal...The repercussions of this are unknown as yet, but will be horrific I would imagine both psychologically and emotionally. I know I am going to be shot down for saying this but we are here for free speech aren't we? It is a frightening world to live in where there are no parameters or boundaries to work within. We are going to be a very mixed up society because more thought needs to be put into what we are displaying to our children in the media. It has gone so far out of control that no one wants to say anything that isn't cool as they'll be seen as homophobic. You cannot just say this is now how we can behave without serious repercussions.
What do you think happens to gay kids?
Seeing many different types of people, gay, straight, transgender etc just means that kids will see there are lots of different types of people and know it's ok to be yourself because people will accept you.
Beautiful, as love is!