Michael Sam opens up about coming out, childhood
Michael Sam made headlines in May when he became the first openly gay player to be drafted into the NFL. Looking back on it, the former Missouri standout wishes he had done things differently.
Sam, who is currently without an NFL team after being released from the Dallas Cowboys' practice squad, sat down with GQ's Andrew Corsello recently to discuss everything from his difficult childhood to coming out, and his future in football.
Here are some of the highlights:
On coming out before the draft...
If I had it my way, I never would have done it the way I did, never would have told it the way I did.
Really?
I would have done the same thing I did at Mizzou. Which was to tell my team and my coaches and leave it at that. But since I did tell my team, word got out.… People think the word didn't get out. It did. Or it did and it didn't. They kept it confined within our family. But the recruiters knew, and reporters knew, and they talked to each other, and it got out. If I didn't have the year I did, nobody would have cared. But I did have that year. And a lot of people knew. Someone was gonna ask me, "I heard you told your team a secret.…" Well, I was comfortable with who I was, and I wouldn't have denied it. And then I wouldn't have been able to control the story. But I have no regrets. Some people can argue that I had the potential to go higher in the draft. But I think everything happens for a reason. It looks good to see me in the position I'm in now, because I can show the world how good I am and rise up the ranks. I'm at the bottom now. I can rise up, show I'm a football player. Not anything else. Just a football player.
On signing with the Cowboys...
That's a good story! Me and Vito were working out with another of our friends. I kept getting this call from "Dallas." Now, I have this horrible phone service. I said, "This 'Dallas' number keeps calling." I thought it was the phone company calling about my bill, because they're always calling me when I'm late with the payment, telling me they're gonna shut it off. So I paid the bill that day. But then they kept calling.
On how he was treated by his brothers...
We called the cops on my brothers so many times I can't even count. Not only for hurting me. They'd abuse my sisters. Verbally abuse my mom. Call me that word ("faggot"), although they meant "scared," "sissy," not "gay." Our house was … strangers showing up, coming in. When I was a kid, I had no idea what they were doing. Now I know. My brothers were evil people. I don't have a relationship with them now. They've both written me letters from prison. People tell me I need to forgive. I will learn to forgive them. I will love them from a distance, just like I love my dad from a distance. But I will never have a special relationship with them. What I went through was scary. For them to dare to call themselves my brothers - I can't live with that.
On being a distraction in the locker room...
Everything we've seen lately - I can't control that. I can only control myself. The way I try not to become a distraction is.... Wait, no. No. I'll say this: I want to become a distraction! And what I mean is: by making big plays and doing good stuff on the field. Although nobody would print that, because that's not a story. Gotta keep bringing up the locker-room situation because he's gay.