NFL spokespeople: Michael Sam’s NFL Draft Stock Will Drop After Announcing He Is Gay

[sofa king]

94. I think that's bullshit.

I think that twelve old homophobes can have whatever opinion they want, but if just two owners realize that this kid's potential on the field outweighs any disruption he can create off of it, there will be a bidding war for him (yes, there are still bidding wars, they just occur behind closed doors before the draft takes place).

The first team to take the first openly gay player will also carry that prestige forward, and this pick might give that team first dibs on all of the best openly gay players who will follow for some time to come. At least one in twenty of the very best will be gay, meaning that the team that picks the first openly gay player might win a gay first-round draft pick every year. Another advantage that far outweighs any disruption.

For a very short time--a season or less--the player himself will have a small advantage over certain other players--those homophobes whose stupid beliefs cause them to underestimate the abilities of Mr. Sam.

And finally, in a league where the best four defenses go deep in the playoffs every year and very often to the Super Bowl (see e.g. Seattle, Baltimore), the team that can see beyond the homophobia and snap up the Defensive Player of the Year in the draft is going to be the team with the clearest vision of success.

That has a chance to work out well for this lad, rather than merely the team that picks him. The shitty teams with the high draft packs might be shitty for a reason: stupid people with stupid beliefs might well be behind those teams' shitty records, and those stupid teams might just be stupid enough to overlook this fellow because he's gay, which is very stupid indeed. That give Mr. Sam half a chance of landing on a good team, instead of the shittiest teams with the highest draft picks. Some of the greatest players in the game felt willing to risk their entire careers rather than go to the graveyard of a bad team--John Elway, for example. This kid might avoid that simply because of his announcement, which would be great for him and which would make his courage pay off for him nearly at once.

I hope it works out for him. It's not enough to be the greatest in the NFL, one also has to survive long enough to stay great. No telling which way this guy is going to go, but he's starting off like the greatest. (I wonder what Ray Lewis thinks of this fellow?)