It’s been roughly a year since NBA player Jason Collins became the first man in a major American team sport to come out as gay while an active athlete. The reactions have ranged from loud applause from members of the LGBT community to anger and protest from the right to flat out indifference from a large number of sports fans, as in “Who cares?” That might be a reflection of where the NBA registers in the American sports consciousness or where Collins, a career backup center, ranks in the basketball hierarchy. Indeed, Collins sat out most of this season, only catching on late in the year with the Brooklyn Nets. Collins isn’t even on the active roster for the Nets in their playoff matchup with Miami.
With the selection of Michael Sam by the St. Louis Rams in the seventh round of the National Football League’s draft, the nation, or at least those who care about sports, will be drawn into some kind of conversation about gay athletes. The reason is simple: The NFL is by far the nation’s most popular sport and it’s not even close. Ratings for the first round of the draft indicate that more than 12 million viewers tuned into either ESPN or the NFL’s own network. That number not only broke previous draft viewership records, but apparently took a big slice out of ratings for the “Big Bang Theory,” the most viewed sitcom.
And, if conversation at the Mother’s Day dinner that I attended was any indicator, there are a lot of people who might not otherwise care about a rookie from Missouri who will now be at least casually interested. To be certain, Sam, who was the Southeastern Conference defensive player of the year, faces long odds to make the St. Louis roster. The Rams are loaded at the position that he played in college, defensive end, and, at 6-foot-2 and 261 pounds, he is a bit undersized. He could, theoretically, convert to linebacker, but Sam might not be quick enough to play that position, which often requires players to guard faster wide receivers and tight ends. And so, if Sam were to be cut from the Rams, there would be undoubtedly be questions about whether he was taken off the roster because of his lack of skill or because of his notoriety as the first openly gay NFL player.
Sam would be, by no means, the first gay man to play in a major professional team sport. A number of men have emerged from the closet, but always after their playing days were done. Their teammates almost certainly were aware of their status, but the public wasn’t. And besides Collins, Sam has company among young men. Derrick Gordon, a guard on the University of Massachusetts’ basketball team, announced that he was gay after the season ended last month.
But Michael Sam is about to become the most widely known gay athlete in America. We’ll have to see if that’s all he’s known for, going forward.