Michael Sam isn’t the only gay NFL player, according to the former Mizzou standout. He’s simply the only openly gay NFL player.
This really should come as no surprise, and perhaps other NFL players soon will follow in Sam’s footsteps and come out. But Sam told Oprah during his first interview since being cut by the St. Louis Rams and subsequently the Dallas Cowboys that other gay NFL players reached out to him to express gratitude.
Sam didn’t name names or say exactly how many players reached out. The 24-year-old defensive end noted, however, that it was more than one player, even saying, “there’s a lot of us out there.”
“Very few reached out to me and pretty much just told me their gratitude and how thankful they were that I had the courage (to come out publicly),” Sam told Oprah. “They wished that they had the courage to come out.”
Sam, of course, announced to the world back in February that he was gay. He was later drafted by the Rams in the seventh round of the 2014 NFL Draft.
Thumbnail photo via Rick Osentoski/USA TODAY Sports Images
