Telling his teammates. The public declaration. First lady tweets support. End zone snow of support. They just wanted to snowboard.
Mark, a freshman, and Alex, a sophomore, scaled the fences of Memorial Stadium early Monday morning with unassuming plans. What they did instead earned national recognition from the likes of ESPN and CBS. Unsatisfied with the slopes on Faurot Field’s north hill, the pair carved the letters S and A into the snow in front of the famous rock M to spell “SAM.” The duo had seen NFL draft-bound defensive end Michael Sam come out on ESPN earlier Sunday evening. “Mind you, this was all the night before management test,” Mark said. “So this is what we did instead of studying,” Alex added, speaking in a joint interview with The Maneater on Monday night.
Mark grabbed his roommate’s purple bandana to shield his eyes from snow and thought of Sam and his announcement. “We sat there and contemplated the S for like five minutes,” Alex said. By mid-morning, the university’s Twitter account had published a photo. “We never thought it would get this big,” Mark said.
NFL Draft Stock Falling. More on Sam: Sam comes out | Fowler: Mizzou backs Sam | Prisco: Life in NFL?
Feb. 9, 2014, will one day be remembered as it should -- as the day in which a young man described himself with pride and honesty. But make no mistake, it is also the day that Missouri defensive end Michael Sam's stock in the NFL Draft began to drop because he announced he was gay. He was already sliding due to concerns over the dreaded 'tweener label -- with some scouts viewing him as too short for defensive end and a project to convert to stand-up linebacker following an inconsistent week at the Senior Bowl. NFLDraftScout.com has Sam ranked as the No. 110 overall prospect. An initial drop to 160 from 90 on Monday morning was part of a comprehensive adjustment in the rankings leading up to next week's scouting combine that generated movement among hundreds of prospects.
As noted by CBSSports.com's Jeremy Fowler, Sam's teamates at Missouri learned of his secret in August. Most/least receptive NFL markets? The NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament is now down to 32 teams, after the conclusion of the Tulsa-UCLA game last night.
As part of the Goizeuta Bracket Buzz contest, we were tasked to determine which of the 32 matchups in the Round of 64 would produce the most pre-game “buzz” on Twitter. Essentially, we looked at the 24 hour period before tip-off, and collected all tweets that mentioned either team or the match-up in that period. The Duke-Mercer matchup dominated the other 31 games in terms of pre-game buzz. NFL teams: Thiefs & thugs OK, gays not? Cowboys receiver: there goes the NFL. Former Missouri defensive end Michael Sam became news over the weekend as the NFL finds itself with the unprecedented situation of having a publicly gay player available for its draft in May.
Former Cowboys wide receiver Patrick Crayton became news over the weekend, too, for his reaction to the news. Crayton responded on Twitter to ESPN's Adam Schefter's report that Sam, a projected mid-round pick, said he's gay. The tweets: Crayton clarified his comments in future Tweets. Limbaugh: Heterosexuals under attack. Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh says heterosexuals are “under assault” from the small fraction of the public that is gay and blames the media for turning football player Michael Sam into an icon.
Limbaugh decried the coverage of Sam, a former college football standout about to enter the NFL draft, publicly acknowledging that he is gay. On his radio show Tuesday, Limbaugh said it’s an example of how a homosexual agenda takes over politics. Continue Reading “Why does homosexuality have a political agenda? Why is there anything political about homosexuality while heterosexuality has no political agenda and there is no agenda attached to it?”
The conservative firebrand played clips of an interview with NFL star Jonathan Vilma on CNN, during which he clarified statements that were previously criticized as homophobic. “The media is gonna turn [Sam] — whether he wants to be one or not, they’re gonna turn him — into an activist. “I thought last week it was stupid to play? Negative recruiting tool for Mizzou rivals? Michael Sam, who helped lead Missouri to a 12-2 record last season, is preparing for the 2014 NFL draft.
Matthew Visinsky/Icon SMI COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The football team at the University of Missouri, the one that Michael Sam came out to last summer, expressed its support for its former star the day after Sam announced he was gay in a series of national interviews. Amid all the speculation about how Sam will be received in the NFL, it's important to remember that Mizzou not only embraced him, but also allowed him to make his announcement on his own terms.
Late on Monday afternoon, the school held a press conference in which six officials answered questions for 30 minutes. The Highlight Reel.