Did the NFL Use and Lose Michael Sam?

Michael Sam’s NFL career may effectively be over, really before it even began and I can’t help but feel as if it came off as a stunt perpetrated by the NFL. Sam, a defensive end who had a standout career at the University of Missouri and was named SEC Defensive Player of the Year last season, was cut by the St. Louis Rams, the team that drafted him in the final round of this year’s draft, after the Rams final preseason game. Sam played well during the preseason, but the Rams were too stacked at the defensive line position to be able to hold on to him.

The Rams likely knew this the moment they selected Sam late in the draft, much later than he had initially been projected to go, which may prove the move was a hometown discount to score points with Mizzou fans, and make the NFL look like a non-bigoted, more progressive, open league especially on the heels of the Miami Dolphins/Richie Incognito bullying scandal last season.

When it didn’t look like a team would draft Sam and the Rams swooped in last second and saved the day I was immediately skeptical and wondered aloud if the NFL had called in a favor. This is quite the accusation, I know, but one I’d never put past the league and one we’ll likely never know for sure.

Before I get in too deep I should say that I think Michael Sam, as a gay athlete, playing in the NFL would be a great and important thing for the NFL, professional sports and the future of our society as a whole. I was rooting for his success. But, I don’t believe a player should make the NFL on anything but his own skill and merits. So, this isn’t so much a diatribe against the Rams, again stacked at Sam’s position, as it is against the NFL itself.

I knew when the Rams had cut Sam on Saturday, August 30 that he would not be claimed by any other organization in the league. I knew this because of the anonymous general managers who thought he would mean trouble for NFL locker rooms, and Tony Dungy’s dumb comments, and ignorant statement’s by players like Miami Dolphins defensive back Don Jones, and the fact that no other team even remotely expressed interest in Sam throughout this spring’s draft. I knew Sam wouldn’t get a shot in the NFL because NFL locker rooms have more respect for manslaughterers, dog brutalizers, wife beaters, racists, bullies, drug abusers and egomaniacs. Their transgressions aren’t locker-room “cancers,” but a homosexual athlete is just too much.

And, on Sunday, August 31, it was announced that no team had claimed Sam. The Rams still have an opportunity to place Sam on their 10-man practice squad, which would be better than nothing and they might, but it also means that Sam’s dream of becoming a NFL player may never come to light. And, I think that’s wrong because I know Sam is talented enough to play in the NFL. I know this because Sam was considered the best defensive player in the SEC, generally considered the toughest and best conference in college football. *The SEC Defensive Player of the Year should virtually be a lock to make one of the on average 288 roster spots dedicated to defensive lineman in the NFL. For those arguing Sam is too small to play defensive line in the NFL and would have to be a linebacker there are on average 224 linebackers in the NFL and a SEC Defensive Player of the Year caliber athlete should be able to make that switch as we’ve seen it from lesser lauded athletes.

I think Michael Sam was essentially used by the NFL for good press and a profit. He’s been one of the most talked about players in the league since he was drafted and his jersey was the seventh highest selling in the league, according to ESPN’s Darren Rovell.

Some would say the NFL doesn’t need any more press, but when the biggest stories of the last year involving the league have all been negative – concussions, Incognito, Ray Rice, Redskins racist name – don’t you think the NFL wanted a really good story? And, yes, I know the NFL is a billion dollar industry of its own and doesn’t “need” money off of Michael Sam jersey sales, but we also know the NFL is greedy. Why else would the league be asking musicians and pop artists to pay to play the Super Bowl halftime show? 

No, the NFL doesn’t “need” the money, but you’d never know it based on their business practices.

The NFL made a lot of good news and money off of Michael Sam and unfortunately he hasn’t gotten the same out of them; not much more than a glorified 15 minutes of fame. Hell, he didn’t even end up with his Oprah Winfrey Network docu-series– bowing to the fears and requests of the Rams.Yet, the Atlanta Falcons are on television once a week on HBO’s “Hard Knocks.”

I can’t help but feel Sam got used and in some ways those fans hoping for something a little different from the NFL did too. Maybe to show that the NFL isn’t that greedy or that they weren’t just profiting off of Sam they should offer all those snookered into buying Sam jerseys a refund or exchange. It may sound crazy or ridiculous to refund jerseys when the fans knew Sam might not make a NFL roster, but we’ve recently seen precedence for doing just that when the Cleveland Cavaliers offered fans refunds or exchanges for Andrew Wiggins jerseys after drafting the collegiate star first overall in the NBA Draft and then trading him months later for superstar Kevin Love.

It may seem simple for the NFL and the Rams to give some money back for Sam jerseys, but it would also go a long ways in saying it wasn’t just a rouse for attention and money.

That would be a step in the right direction, but it still wouldn’t do anything in giving hope to any gay athletes hoping one day to make it to the biggest stage of professional sports. 

*Here are the last 10 SEC Defensive Players of the Year and the round they were drafted in ...

Michael Sam (7th), Jarvis Jones (1st), Morris Claiborne (1st), Patrick Peterson (1st), Rolando McClain (1st), Eric Berry (1st), Glenn Dorsey (1st), Patrick Willis (1st), Demeco Ryans (2nd), David Pollack (1st)

Hog Hell

It seemed like an incredibly fitting end to the Arkansas Razorbacks’ season. The team looked in control for much of their contest against the number 17 ranked LSU Tigers on Friday (Nov. 29) only to have their seemingly first conference win of the season, in their final game of the season, blown by an easy 49-yard pass by freshman backup quarterback Anthony Jennings, who had just entered the game for injured starter Zach Mettenberger to a laughably wide open receiver Travin Dural. Then with a final opportunity to retake the lead and win the game Razorbacks sophomore quarterback Brandon Allen fumbled away their chances. He must really like cleaning egg off of his pickup truck.

After two seasons in Hog Hell, you would think that Razorbacks fans would be getting pretty accustomed to watching losing teams, but they still seem to be dumbfounded by the team’s struggles and enveloped in a combination of anger, sadness and obnoxious delusion (which I’ve found is not uncommon for Hogs fans whether their favorite team is 10-2 or 2-10).

Maybe it’s just because I’ve lived in the state of Arkansas for the majority of my life, and maybe similar things occur everywhere (although from what I’ve read and seen, it doesn’t appear to be as bad elsewhere) but it often appears as if the majority of the Razorbacks fanbase has an unhealthy relationship with their favorite college football team and almost always have unrealistic expectations and incredibly homer-ish (the inability to be objective about one’s favorite sports team) attitudes toward the Razorbacks.

Razorbacks fans thought that last season’s 4-8 (2-6 in SEC play) team under interim head coach John L. Smith, who took over following the controversial (even though it shouldn’t have been and only was in the state of Arkansas) firing of Bobby Petrino, was the real year in Hog Hell. Many thought that the hiring of Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema would automatically transform the Razorbacks back into a winning football teams with aspirations of a good bowl game or at least any bowl game.

These aspirations are typical bits of the sort of delusions of grandeur that Razorbacks fans spout off each season. Certainly a team coming off one of its worst seasons in school history under a new coach, new system and many new players would not be successful enough to make a bowl appearance in a rebuilding year. That never happens (unless you’re apparently coached by Gus Malzahn). But, many Razorbacks fans just knew it would.

What happened instead was an even worse year in Hog Hell than the previous season as Bielema lead the Razorbacks to a 3-9 record and the school’s first ever winless SEC slate in his first season at the helm. The team won its first three games of the season over cupcake schools like Louisiana-Lafayette, Samford and Southern Mississippi (and wasn’t that impressive looking much of the time) only to lose their remaining nine games of the season consecutively by being outscored by a whopping 172 points in the process.    

Now these numbers shouldn’t be all that alarming for fans in what is a rebuilding season, but fans either didn’t expect the team to have the usual hiccups of a rebuilding season or they simply didn’t understand what rebuilding seasons are. One year is much too little of a sample size, but there’s honestly no telling how Bielema will do in the long run as head football coach at the University of Arkansas. Yet, many in the fanbase already want his head on a stick or to be run out of town. And, many who expect the Razorbacks to win constantly and act as if they have never seen their favorite team utterly suck before (have they already forgotten the previous season?) feel like they have the right to egg the pickup truck of “their” team’s quarterback.

This is where we run into some of the biggest problems and delusions that are a part of much of the Razorbacks’ fanbase.

Razorbacks fans have this way of acting like their favorite team is a national powerhouse that is supposed to win every game they play no matter the opponent. They believe the team is supposed to be treated like they are on the same stage as Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma, etc. However, the team is simply not a national powerhouse and rarely, if ever, has been. In the era of the BCS rankings they have never been ranked as the best team in the country or the second best even for a week. In the team’s 100-plus year history it has won one national championship, almost a half century ago in 1964, a decent 13 conference titles, but none in their 20-plus year history in the SEC and has only produced a relatively miniscule two Pro Football Hall of Famers. Yet, the fans act like the team is one of God’s gifts to college football.

Why?

This gets us to another major problem with much of the fanbase, or so I’ve been told. Multiple people have told me before that the Razorbacks have such a crazy fanbase because it’s the only major sports team in a state without any professional sports teams and really other big college teams. The “only team in the state” theory somewhat makes sense, but doesn’t mean the fanbase has the right to shut their brains off when it comes to their favorite team. Part of the reason Hogs fans are often so delusional is just a part of dealing with sports fans, who are often the least objective and reasonable people on the planet, but, once again, it would seem that the Razorbacks’ fanbase is worse than most. Razorbacks fans often act like they own some stake in their favorite team; like they are a part of their favorite team. This is why when things don’t go well with the team they feel they have the right to do things like egg the QB’s truck. It’s also why they feel they have the right to call analysts and experts like Tim Brando and Kirk Herbstreit names and mercilessly bully them on social media sites like Twitter simply for giving their opinions on the Razorbacks or for predicting them to lose a football game. Many Razorbacks fans take it personally when somebody says something about their favorite team, as if it’s a part of them. They truly feel offended if somebody was to pick an opponent to win a game over the Razorbacks or if somebody says something even the slightest bit negative about their favorite team.  Many will absolutely hate every single thing I’ve written here.  

This is the type of delusion that leads to years in Hog Hell like the last two. People believe that because it’s the Arkansas Razorbacks they are supposed to always play well, win games, never have losing seasons, never be talked negatively about and compete for national championships (even though they’ve hardly ever done this last thing). When the team ends up with one of its worst seasons in the history of the school like this season people freak out, even though years like this should be expected and in rebuilding years, especially. Being a fan of a sports team is a great thing and a fan’s loyalty to that team is sacred. However, sports fans should desperately attempt to be a little more reasonable about their favorite teams and Arkansas Razorbacks fans seem to be one of the fanbases in this country most in need of this lesson.