Michael Sam drafted 7th round after coming out
SEC Defensive Player of the Year Michael Sam slid to the 7th round after coming out as gay before the 2014 NFL Draft, and was subsequently cut.
Snapshot · We Need To Talk with Paul C. Brunson
Colton Underwood: I Thought The Bachelor Would Make Me Straight “I Prayed To God”
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Jun 16, 2026
Where this was said
Navigating Homophobia in American Football
At 31:48 · chapter starts 29:21
The NFL locker room was paradoxically less homophobic than college — grown men with families didn't gossip the same way — but the league's institutional hostility was obvious. Michael Sam, the SEC Defensive Player of the Year and Colton's 2014 draft classmate, came out before the draft, fell to the 7th round, and was cut [1] — Colton Underwood "SEC Defensive Player of the Year Michael Sam fell to the 7th round after coming out, got cut, and was briefly picked up by the Cowboys — Co…" 31:20 . Colton watched a locker room publicly applaud diversity while privately mocking Sam, and he describes the Cowboys signing as a cynical jersey-sales exercise. For Colton, calculating the risks as a defensive end — weighing what he stood to lose — led him to the same conclusion every time: stay silent. Even now, he admits strength in numbers might have changed things, but as a borderline practice-squad player, he had none of Sam's leverage.
Michael Sam and What the NFL Really Thinks of Gay Players
SEC Defensive Player of the Year Michael Sam fell to the 7th round after coming out, got cut, and was briefly picked up by the Cowboys — Colton says it was obviously to sell jerseys. The NFL sees gay players as distractions, and that observation locked Colton deeper in the closet.
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