Michael Sam, SEC Defensive Player of the Year and likely NFL draft pick, comes out

Missouri defensive lineman Michael Sam, the SEC Defensive Player of the Year in 2013 and a likely 2014 NFL draft pick, has come out publicly as being gay.

The link above has the full story about this in the New York Times, but this is particularly significant given that Sam will be the first active, openly gay NFL player, assuming he does make an NFL roster this summer.

In the story, Sam says that rumors were already circulating about his sexuality, and so he wanted to go public about it to head off the rumors and address the issue head-on.

This is a pretty significant milestone, and it will be interested to see if this impacts Sam's NFL career, and how he is accepted with whatever team he goes to camp with.

In the aftermath of the Chris Kluwe controversy in Minnesota, it would be interesting if Sam ends up getting drafted by the Vikings...