Michael Sam suggests his career ‘would have been better if I didn’t come out’

Michael Sam has said that he thinks his career would be in better shape had he not publicly come out as gay.

The sad admission comes 18 months after the NFL star was hailed for making his sexuality known; something he said he was moved to do because he thought the media would have outed him otherwise.

Speaking to the Dan Patrick Show, the 25-year-old – who is now not on any team’s roster – said: “I wanted to come out after I made an NFL roster, it really wasn’t supposed to be public. It was just supposed to be to the team, as I did at the University of Missouri.”

Asked if coming out negatively impacted his career, he said: “I’m not going to say. But it probably would have been better for me if I didn’t come out. I would be on a roster.

“But, as I said, I have no regrets whatsoever.”

Sam joined the Montreal Alouettes in August but has since left for “personal reasons”, now saying: “I wasn’t getting better as a football player, that was one of the main keys.

“It was a different defense, a defense I wasn’t used to, and all the stuff I learned from the Rams, the Cowboys, I thought I was losing that technique in Montreal.”

He also reportedly split from his fiancé Vita Cammisano in June.