Michael Sam being cut by the Rams wasn’t a tremendous surprise… but him being unsigned by any NFL team for their practice squad certainly is. Sam played well in the preseason and was considered a shoo-in for the Rams practice squad at the very least, but they chose to stock extra bodies at different positions. Now, sadly and predictably, Sam still waiting for the phone to ring is being blamed on the media attention that will follow him.
That led one NFL player, Eric Wood of the Bills, to lay the blame squarely at the four-letter…
@RossTuckerNFL blame that on espn. No one wants the distraction
— Eric Wood (@EWood70) August 31, 2014
Wood has a point, you know. Before ESPN’s ShowerGate coverage, Sam was having a relatively quiet preseason when it comes to the media circus. But with the hoopla brought last week right when roster cuts were being made, it could very conceivably lead already skittish NFL teams to close the door to Sam.
It’s ironic given the fact that ESPN was one of the outlets Sam chose to come out to publicly and the network honored him with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at this year’s ESPYs. Now it turns out all the attention for Sam from Bristol, like Tim Tebow before him, is doing his career more harm than good.
