I can't really remember where I saw this statistic, and I don't remember enough of the hard details to find it on Google, but I know what I saw. It was something to the effect of, twelve rookie defensive linemen/linebackers had 2.5 or more sacks this past preseason. Of those twelve rookie defenders, ten made the active rosters of the teams that drafted them. One made a practice squad. One did not. The one that did not is Michael Sam.
Now, there are two large and very obvious elephants in the room that need to be poached, shot, and their ivory harvested for the black market in China. The first of those is that, yes, Michael Sam is gay. He likes dudes. First openly gay blah blah blah, et cetera. I'm not a media hack and I'm not going to use media hack terms. He's gay. If this is the first you're hearing of that, you're either not actually reading this blog right now or you just don't watch sports, period. After inexplicably falling to the seventh round of the draft he got drafted by the St. Louis Rams, which leads to the next elephant, though this elephant is a bit smaller and less noticeable.
The St. Louis Rams have the deepest defensive front seven in the NFL. The fact that Michael Sam made it past the first wave of cuts is impressive in and of itself. There wasn't a ton of room on that roster for rookie defenders. The fact that he didn't make the team surprised no one, even the biggest, most annoying social agenda whores in the country. So yeah, he got cut. The guy he was basically competing with made the team, though, if I go by what I personally saw, Sam blew this guy out of the water in game situations. Whatever. I'm not a coach and I don't get to make these decisions. But I have to imagine that Sam barely missed the cut. The way he played, even if it was against second- or third-stringers, was in a manner of a guy who is a really good professional football player.
We here at The First Round Punter © don't dabble in unfounded accusations. Unless it's a personal accusation against each other (Juan, much like Michael Sam, is very, very gay). So I'm not going to speculate on the reason the Rams didn't at least keep Michael Sam on their practice squad, even though I can't really imagine they found ten better candidates for that team. Maybe it was just a result of the aforementioned depth. Maybe they didn't want the "distraction." That's been the main cop-out teams have used as an excuse not to sign certain players in the recent past. Even Tony Dungy, who inexplicably gets respect from the sports media and sports public, publicly said he wouldn't draft Sam for that reason. Dungy is also a well-known Christian, which is of little importance, but draws a connection between his decisions and Sam's orientation. FUCK TONY DUNGY.
What's even more baffling is that Sam, until maybe a few hours ago, drew no interest from any other teams. There were plenty of teams that were missing that oh-so-important element of pass rush, and on whose squads Sam would have provided an immediate upgrade. So why didn't it happen? I don't know. But then, it did happen.
Far be it for me to say what I'm about to say, but I give a ton of credit and respect to the Dallas Cowboys today. They brought Sam in, gave him a physical, and have apparently signed him to their own practice squad. It's a small step in the right direction, but it's a step nonetheless. And if I had to guess, the way Dallas' luck had held up on defense this offseason, I would guess that Sam will be on the active roster sooner rather than later. And at that point, yes, FUCK MICHAEL SAM. Sorry, it had to be said.
Until later. Thanks for reading.
7 comments:
Good stuff - Jason adkison
A couple of points:
1.He undoubtedly deserves to be on someone's team. I think he has a knack for getting to the quarterback and has a motor that won't quit.
2. The problem is... that's all he can do. The fact that he is a fringe player that doesn't play special teams or stop the run well or isn't that great in coverage will be his deathnell if he doesn't improve in those areas. It also doesn't help that that he is small and not very fast. Also, unfortunately, ESPN's shower coverage doesn't do him any good. Regardless of what some teams say, they didn't claim or sign him because he is gay and the media is going to follow him everywhere he goes.
There are a lot of things working against him. But also, there are a lot of things working for him. Hopefully he can work and improve so he can accomplish his dream.....
In response to that second point, Juan, I simply say: Brian Orakpo. He's one of the best at what he does, but he really only does one thing.
The real elephant in the room, the one no one is talking about, is that no one would be talking about Sam if he wasn't gay. Maybe, maybe there would have been some question about why the Rams were drafting a rookie to arguably their deepest position but otherwise, no one would know who he is. No one would give a damn if he made a practice squad.
He did ok against second and third stringers. Perhaps that's enough to get a spot on a practice squad but the Rams certainly don't need to waste spots on their practice squad for a guy that will probably never suit up for them.
And then there is the simple fact he's not very good against the run. A pass rush is nice but not if the offense can just run it all day. Any team that signed him to their regular squad would be putting him against stronger faster guys than he played against in the preseason. There is nothing to say his pass rush would be worth a damn against them but its a pretty good bet his rushing coverage would be even worse. Add in his inability to play any other position on the line and he's a bad pick for nearly every team when there are so many more well rounded players.
Had he not come out, we wouldn't have had weekly updates about his average second string performances, his failure to make the Ram's practice squad wouldn't have been front page news, him making the Cowboy's practice squad would have been a single line at the bottom of an actual sports story, and this post wouldn't exist.
If Sam wasn't gay, he most likely would have been drafted at or above his talent level, and you're probably right, the post wouldn't exist. But we can't exclude reality from the situation.
The reality is, he's small, slow, and is, being very generous, average against the run. At most, he's a situational DE for obvious passing downs. And his pass rush might not have been all that good against starters. It's one thing to bully a bench warmer, quite another to go toe to toe with the big boys.
Tell me, which small, slow, single dimensional DEs were drafted higher than him?
Osackpo is mega-talented. Sam isn't. That's the difference. That's why I said "fringe".
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