Earlier this evening the NFL Draft concluded. Usually the third day of the draft is the least eventful of all the days. By now most of the college stars that are household names are scooped up. Most of the guys drafted today will be in and out of the league within a few years. Some will be cut before they get to play a snap of pro football. Some will become future hall of famers. There are players drafted first overall that never find success. Tom Brady, American Male Ugg enthusiast, was a flabby 6th round pick at one point. There are no rules to knowing who's skills will or won't translate to the pro game. That's why it's such a gamble, but a very fun gamble.
Today wasn't the ordinary boring third day of the draft. Today was Michael Sam day. Michael Sam is a defensive end from the University of Missouri. He was the SEC co-defensive player of the year. He is 6'2" and weighs 261 lbs. He is also the first openly gay professional athlete.
For a while it looked like he wasn't going to be selected. But in the 7th round the St Louis Rams pulled the trigger and made sports history. ESPN had cameras covering the event at Sam's draft party. If you haven't seen the video, I encourage you to do so. Sam was shown on the phone talking with the Rams. He burst into tears as he was told he was going to be selected. He then proceeded to kiss his boyfriend. It was a cool moment.
Of course, not everyone is on board with this "new age" love. Twitter was ablaze with intolerant morons that don't recognize the importance of this moment. I feel sorry for those people that can't handle the fact that two people love each other and shared a special moment. There was one misguided fellow that questioned how he was going to explain to his kids that two men were kissing on television! I can't possibly imagine how this poor man now has to go out of his way to explain to his son that it's entirely possible that two men actually love each other.
Some of us, and I'd like to say the majority of us, just shrugged it off. We grasped the importance of the moment but didn't see anything weird about a couple kissing on TV. Some of us may have even done our jobs as parents and told our kids that both of those men were human beings and its ok for two people to love each other. How would I explain this "Michael Sam situation" to my own son? It wasn't as easy as it seemed.
"Well son, Michael Sam is what the NFL general managers call a 'tweener'. That means he's having a hard time being assigned a position because of his size and weight. He's too small to be a lineman and too big to run around and be a linebacker. So he may struggle." And that, Sir Idiots of Twitter, is how I would explain it to my son. I have an issue with the modern day mongrel that sees love as a disease. Those that feel the same way are the true disease.
As we move on in time future generations will become more and more tolerable of same sex relationships. One day, hopefully in my lifetime, there will be a point in time where people look back at this moment in time and wonder why a gay professional athlete being drafted was such big news. For now, we unfortunately have to deal with the hatred and bigotry spewed from the mouths of the stupid. But today was a giant leap in the right direction. Today was a good day in sports history. Now all Michael Sam needs to worry about is Michael Sam the football player. I hope he does well. Just not when the Rams plays the Bears.