Michael Sam’s presence a welcome distraction for Dallas Cowboys

At one stage during the never-ending build-up to an NFL season that finally kicks off tonight, ESPN went live to the St Louis Rams' training camp. On-site reporter Josina Anderson was asked how rookie defensive end Michael Sam was fitting in with his new team-mates. She answered that he was respectful of their personal space, one of them had never seen him in the shower, and another colleague wasn't even tracking when he showers. Sam is gay so, you know, obsessing over when and with whom he bathes is apparently fair game.

ESPN later apologised but the interview veered so quickly from awkward to downright offensive that, for the first time since the Rams picked him 249th in the league’s annual draft of the most promising college players back in May, Sam was at the epicenter of a media storm. He didn’t create it. He had no part in it.

But, completely ignoring the fact he’d assimilated into the Rams’ locker-room without any problems, some began to wonder aloud (many indeed on the self-perpetuating ESPN) whether this episode could yet adversely affect the first openly gay player’s chances of making it in the league.

“It was a football decision to draft Mike,” said Rams’ head coach Jeff Fisher when announcing last Saturday that Sam was one of 37 training camp attendees who didn’t make the opening day roster of 53. “And once again, it’s been all about football.”

Fisher’s assertion

The available evidence backed up Fisher’s assertion. His team is overstocked with excellent defensive ends, and, while impressing in pre-season, Sam just didn’t do enough to oust any of the incumbents. He’d also been overtaken by

Ethan Westbrooks

, another training camp long-shot whose greater versatility (he can play defensive end or tackle) won him a spot in the squad. If the Rams’ decision to release him appeared above reproach, it didn’t take long for the potential negative impact of the ESPN shower affair, in particular, and Sam’s homosexuality, in general, to come back into play.

Much like with gifted county minors in hurling and football, there is, of course, no guarantee any college gridiron star (even an award-winner like Sam) will automatically make it as a pro. The competition is bigger, stronger and faster, the demands more subtle and varied. Yet, having made three sacks and 11 tackles in the warm-up games, the consensus was that, whatever the Rams opted to do, Sam had shown enough to suggest he would catch on at another club.

However, of the 12 players to put up his type of statistics in the admittedly ersatz August friendlies, he was, initially, the only one who didn’t make a roster or a practice squad (each team is allowed to carry 10 reserve players who can train with the club every day).

“To have the type of production he did and not get picked up by another team seemed a little odd,” said LaVar Arrington, former Washington Redskins linebacker.

After announcing his own homosexuality last year, veteran NBA centre Jason Collins spent almost 10 months as a free agent before the Brooklyn Nets signed him up once they required somebody experienced to play that position.

For a time earlier this week, it looked like Sam would have to endure a similar waiting period. But, just as general managers were defensively briefing journalists that this wasn't homophobia, it was simply clubs didn't want the added media distraction, the Dallas Cowboys stepped into the breach.

Practice squad

Following his physical yesterday morning, Sam signed to the practice squad of the outfit that styles itself “America’s Team”. Even though he’s a Texas native, a club in a state so deeply conservative that Republican politicians recently claimed legalising gay marriage could promote incest seems like a strange fit. For many different reasons, it isn’t.

It’s not just that the Cowboys need defensive cover. It’s also that they are in dire shape right now and their beleaguered owner Jerry Jones knows Sam’s presence will, ironically, provide a welcome distraction. The numbers look good too. Despite never having played a competitive game, Sam’s Rams’ jersey was already the sixth-best selling in the country this year. Given the Cowboys’ much larger fanbase nationwide, and the fact practice squad players earn $6,000 a week, Jones stands to make a whole lot of money from the deal.

Whatever happens from here, and it is expected he will be called up to the Cowboys’ proper roster eventually, Sam has already broken so much new ground. In a league where two different locker-rooms were exposed as rife with homophobia in just the past year, the sight of him turning to kiss his boyfriend Vito Cammisano in celebration during the televised draft was a seismic moment in social not just sporting history.

There is something else to consider too. Long before he decided to come out earlier this year, Sam’s path to the cusp of the NFL was already extraordinary. As a child in the small town of Hitchcock near Galveston, he witnessed the shooting death of one brother and the disappearance of another. Two more of his seven siblings are currently in jail. For a time his fractured family was homeless and he lived in a car with his mother. To get from there to here is testament to a strength of character that indicates he’s more than equipped to cope with the unique pressures that come from blazing this trail.