Here’s hoping Sam’s storyline becomes his talent
Ideally, Michael Sam would be described as football player of considerable ability and promise. Period. End of paragraph.
But there is always an add-on — “the first openly gay player to be drafted by an NFL team,” or a variation thereof.
Reportage of Sam’s signing with the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes, who announced the two-year deal on Friday, invariably included a prominent reference to the 25-year-old defensive end’s sexual orientation. Add this column to an expansive list.
Hopefully there will come a time when Sam is described simply as an athlete. The Alouettes went to considerable lengths to frame the signing within a football context, without the slightest allusion to a matter that, in a perfect world, would be irrelevant.
And the signing is noteworthy in a gridiron context. Sam, after all, was the 2013 defensive player of the year in the ultracompetitive Southeastern Conference while excelling for the Missouri Tigers.
Following a stellar senior season, Sam told ESPN’s Outside The Lines that he is gay. His teammates had been informed before the 2013 season, without any issues.
After going public, Sam was described as a trail blazer and lauded for his courage and character. Then the wait began for the NFL draft, in which Sam was selected in the seventh round by the St. Louis Rams — prompting President Barack Obama to extend his congratulations.
Despite registering three sacks and 11 tackles in four pre- season games, Sam was released by the Rams. He subsequently spent six weeks on the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad before being cut once more. Next stop: Montreal. “Congratulations to the Montreal Alouettes on the signing of Michael Sam,” CFL commissioner Jeffrey Orridge said Friday in a media release. “Our players come to us from different places, different walks of life, and ultimately they take different paths to get to our fields.”
Rare is the day when a commissioner in any sport issues a statement regarding a player signing — especially someone who has yet to see action in a regularseason game.
Orridge saw fit to respond to a landmark transaction, while accurately referring to the CFL as a haven for progressive, inclusive thought.
Black quarterbacks were not impact players in any league until the CFL contributed to a changing mindset.
In the NFL, there was disinterest in Warren Moon as a quarterback even though he had impressively piloted the Washington Huskies to a Rose Bowl victory in 1978.
The Edmonton Eskimos signed Moon, who became a CFL legend while collecting a Grey Cup ring in each of his first five seasons of professional football.
Applaudably, football has reached a point at all levels where nobody even blinks when a black person is in the spotlight. This is not to suggest that racism has been eradicated — there will always be loons on the fringes of professional sport — but so much progress has been made.
In 2000, for example, it was a story when the Saskatchewan Roughriders hired a black general manager, Roy Shivers. He soon appointed a black head coach, Danny Barrett.
In 1995, Shivers had become pro football’s first black GM when he was hired to run a CFL expansion team, the Birmingham Barracudas.
Five years later, Shivers named Barrett the Riders’ field boss, and he became the second black head coach in CFL history — following Willie Wood, who was promoted from an assistant’s role in 1980.
How far has society come? To what degree has football progressed?
Four black quarterbacks have been drafted first overall in the NFL — Michael Vick (Atlanta Falcons, 2001), JaMarcus Russell (Oakland Raiders, 2007), Cam Newton (Carolina Panthers, 2011) and Jameis Winston (Tampa Bay, 2015).
As another example, consider today’s Roughriders.
When Corey Chamblin was appointed the head coach in December of 2011, there was not one reference in media reports to his skin colour.
In 2013, Chamblin became the second black head coach to win a Grey Cup — following Michael (Pinball) Clemons, who had guided Toronto to a championship in 2004.
Clemons was the first black head coach in professional football to win a championship, and he did so with a black quarterback (Damon Allen).
Nine years later, the Roughriders won a Grey Cup at home with a black head coach and a black quarterback (Darian Durant). The cultural significance of Saskatchewan’s victory was not an issue, or even a story.
Here’s to the day, hopefully not far away, when there is a comparable non-reaction to the presence of a gay player on any team in any sport.
And here’s to Michael Sam. May he enjoy a long, successful and enriching career, during which the sole storyline becomes his abundant football talent. Period.