Report: NFL Made Secret Deal With Rams to Draft Michael Sam in 2014

According to veteran sportswriter Howard Balzer, the then-St. Louis Rams made a deal with the National Football League in 2014 to ensure that defensive end Michael Sam was drafted.

Balzer reports that “multiple sources” tell him the league wanted to avoid a potential public relations disaster where the first openly gay player went undrafted. Likewise, the Rams (today the L.A. Rams) wanted to avoid being selected as the focus for the 2014 season of HBO’s Hard Knocks. A deal was supposedly struck; the Rams would select Sam with their final pick of the draft and the NFL would make sure another team was picked to do Hard Knocks.

Sam was eventually cut from the Rams following training camp and went to the Dallas Cowboys, where he was also cut. Sam showed up for the 2015 veteran’s combine, but reportedly looked “flat-out horrible” and went unsigned.

Sam moved to Canadian football having never played a single game in the NFL, and signed with the Montreal Alouettes. Sam, the former SEC Defensive Player of the Year during his time at Mizzou, played only one game with the Alouettes (where he didn’t record a single tackle), and he soon retired from football.

[Image via screengrab]
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