The NFL’s first openly gay player Michael Sam told Oprah Winfrey in an interview set to air on Saturday that there are “a lot of us out there,” referring to gay men in the NFL.
“Very few reached out to me and pretty much just told me their gratitude and how they were thankful that I had the courage,” Sam said in the interview that is set to air on OWN’s Oprah Prime. “They wished that they had the courage to come out.”
“Gay men in the NFL reached out to you and called you?” Oprah asked.
“Reached out to me, yes, and just showed their respect and showed that, and admired my courage,” Sam said. “It was very good.”
Oprah then pointed out to Sam that he had used the plural “men” not “man.”
“Men,” Sam repeated, during the interview. “There’s a lot of us out there. I’m not the only one. I’m just the only one who’s open.”
Sam, the NFL’s first openly gay player was drafted in May by the St. Louis Rams, before being cut from the team during training camp. He then joined the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad but was waived in October and is currently a free agent.
Watch a preview of the interview below, courtesy of OWN:
blah blah blah. Sam missed out on a big payday. Now he has to join the rest of us and get a real job. I mean, what’s left after an Oprah interview?
There are lots of gay people everywhere and always have been. Except, of course, for Iran.
I don’t know. I have a feeling that someone who had the courage to do this is going to end up a bit higher up on the ladder than you or I.
Isn’t that special.
I’m not getting this.
Sam is the first openly gay NFL player. Too bad others didn’t feel comfortable doing it before him. Doesn’t make them bad guys, doesn’t really make him a hero. But I really don’t get your disdain of him or your brushing off what he is doing.