Blogger 365 Day 135 - Just cut him

       When the NFL Draft took place I wasn't all that keen on watching.  To be honest, I rarely get caught up in where guys go and who gets picked in what round, my interest only begins to take shape when I see how the guys are performing on the field.  There are plenty of stories of guys who get taken in the first round who end up being busts just as there are stories of undrafted free agents who go on to have amazing careers.  Some times the prognosticators get it right, some times they don't.  For me I tend to let my own two eyes tell me more than anything I may here on TV or read on a website.

     So when the media went all apeshit about Michael Sam getting drafted by the St Louis Rams in the 7th round of the NFL draft to me it wasn't that big a thing.  He certainly had enough of a college pedigree that would merit being drafted, including being the SEC Defensive Player of the Year and named an All American while in college.  In my own mental world that would merit someone taking a chance on him to see if he could play at the professional level.

     The thing that made the Michael Sam story so juicy from the media perspective is that he is an openly gay man.  Personally, I couldn't care less.  Who you love or who you fuck in your free time really doesn't matter to me.  All that matters to me is whether you can play or not.  So when Michael Sam was drafted, and there was video of him getting the call, followed by him kissing his boyfriend I was just like, ho hum.  Let's be honest, if this were any other player and the video would have been of them kissing their girlfriend, there would have been a collective ho hum from across the spectrum.  But because it was a man kissing another man, now let the kerfuffle begin.

     I personally thought that being drafted by St Louis was a good place for Michael Sam to land.  Sam, who plays defensive end, would be playing on a team with a defensive minded coach in Jeff Fisher, and playing on a team that has quality players on its defensive line, as evidenced by the fact that the Rams finished 3rd in the NFL in sacks last year with 53.  Even if Sam didn't win a starting job out of the gate, it would be a great place for him to learn and develop as a pro behind guys who are really good at what they do.

     Now, word is out that Michael Sam has sold his story as a documentary to Oprah Winfrey's OWN Network, a point that he did not tell any team in the NFL prior to or during the draft.  What this means is that all through training camp there will be cameramen and microphones trailing him and his teammates around simply to get the Michael Sam story.  And let's be honest, OWN will not be following Michael Sam around to break down his pass rushing technique, there will be no critiquing his swim move to get around a 300 lb offensive lineman, rather they will be there simply because he is a man who is attracted to other men. 

     St Louis plays in arguably the toughest division in football, the same division that has the 2014 Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks and the 2013 NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers.  A quick look at the Rams schedule for this coming season shows that they will play a team that made the playoffs last season 8 times out of their 16 games, so an improvement 7-9 record last will be a tough road to hoe.  And instead of using training camp and the preseason as a chance to learn, grow and help his team get better, Michael Sam has decided on his own to use that time as little more than a publicity vehicle for himself. 

    Of course there is one way that Jeff Fisher could keep the cameras and the media circus away from his team as he prepares for the 2014-2015 NFL season, and that would simply be to cut Michael Sam.  Would that provoke scrutiny and would the St Louis Rams organization be forced to answer questions?  Absolutely, but no matter how this played out that was going to be the case.  If Michael Sam was cut before the season, there would be questions, if Michael Sam made the team but wasn't a starter there would be questions, if Michael Sam made the team and was a starter there would be questions.  At the end of the day, there would always be questions.  The only question that should matter to the Rams though is whether a person you thought just enough of to take in the last round of the NFL draft worth not just the media spectacle that was bound to happen, but the added intrusion by people that Michael Sam invited of his own accord without clearing it with the team beforehand.  If the answer is no, then the easiest solution is to simply cut him.