Michael Sam: ‘Other players in the NFL have told me they’re gay’

Michael Sam has admitted that other players in the NFL have come out to him.

Sam, who found himself at the centre of a media frenzy last year after he became the first ever openly gay man to be drafted into the NFL, has claimed that despite several players approaching him and telling him they’re gay, none of them “have the courage” to come out publicly.

“I am not the only gay person in the NFL,” he told The Star Telegram. “I’m just saying there is a lot of us. I respect the players that did reach out to me and had the courage to tell me that they were also gay, but they do not have the same courage as I do to come out before I even played a down in the NFL.”

He continued: “Was it a risky move? Yes. But at that moment, the reason why I came out is I thought it wasn’t going to be a big deal. Maybe I was naive. Maybe I thought it was 2014, and people will understand that there’s gay NFL players. There’s gay athletes everywhere. But I was clearly wrong. It was a huge deal.”

Despite knowing who these players are, Sam has insisted that he would never reveal their identities until they were ready to do so themselves.

“The players who have reached out to me and told me about their sexual orientation, it just means a lot. But I will never say anything about who they are, what teams they are [on]. I’m just saying there’s some famous people, and I’m not the only one,” added Sam.

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