St. Louis Rams Cut Michael Sam, First Openly Gay NFL Player

St. Louis Rams Cut Michael Sam, First Openly Gay NFL Player – On Saturday the St. Louis cut the first openly gay player drafted to the NFL, Michael Sam, after they had to reduce their team to 53 players. He was one of the team’s final cuts before the season starts this week.

Being let go this early allows Sam to get picked up as a free agent by every other NFL team.

At the University of Missouri, though he was one of the top defensive players in the Southeastern Conference, Michael Sam was the 249th player chosen out of at total of 256.

Sam gave a lousy performance at the scouting combine, but his preseason was much stronger with 11 tackles and three sacks; 6 being during his last preseason game.

The most interesting legal aspect of Michael Sam’s release from Rams is that there is no legal aspect. It was an ordinary football decision.

— Michael McCann (@McCannSportsLaw) August 30, 2014

The St. Louis Rams did their best to make it clear that Sam was not let go because of his sexuality. On Saturday’s news conference Rams Coach Jeff Fisher said:

“I will tell you this: I was pulling for Mike, I really was. And I don’t say that very often. Mike came in here and did everything we asked him to do.

It was a football decision, and the decision is no different than any other decision that we make. It was a football decision. It was a football decision back in May to draft Mike.

There’s no challenge with respect to Mike Sam. He’s not about drawing attention to himself. He kept his head down and worked and you can’t ask anything more out of any player for that.

Sam tweeted his appreciation to his team, coach, and city:

I want to thank the entire Rams organization and the city of St. Louis for giving me this tremendous opportunity and allowing me to (1/2) — Michael Sam (@MichaelSamNFL) August 30, 2014

show I can play at this level. I look forward to continuing to build on the progress I made here toward a long and successful career (2/2) — Michael Sam (@MichaelSamNFL) August 30, 2014

The most worthwhile things in life rarely come easy, this is a lesson I’ve always known. The journey continues. — Michael Sam (@MichaelSamNFL) August 30, 2014