After the Rams selected defensive end Michael Sam in the seventh round of the draft, ESPN cameras showed Sam’s emotional reaction to the pick.
There were tears, congratulations from well-wishers and a kiss from his boyfriend, which was nothing out of the ordinary from the reaction of past draft picks outside of the gender of the person kissing Sam. That didn’t seem to sit well with Dolphins cornerback Don Jones. Jones tweeted out “omg” after the kiss was shown and then replied “horrible” to a follower asking if he was referring to the kiss.
The tweets have since been deleted, but Dolphins General Manager Dennis Hickey was asked about them at a Saturday press conference. He called the selection of Sam, the first openly gay player drafted into the NFL, “a great thing” for the league and said that he would sit down with Jones to talk about appropriate use of social media.
“I was made aware of it and I was disappointed in those comments,” Hickey said, via ESPN.com. “That’s not what we stand for as an organization. The draft weekend is a culmination for so many players, their lifetime achievement of their dream to achieve a goal for Michael Sam and all the other players.”
It’s the second time since the start of the draft that Hickey has had to deal with fallout from one of the team’s players’ Twitter use. Center Mike Pouncey also earned a chat with the G.M. for joking about last year’s harassment of Jonathan Martin after the team selected tackle Ja’Wuan James in the first round. Pouncey has since shut down his Twitter account and Hickey might like the rest of the roster to do the same so he has time to spend on football matters instead of reminding players that their musings on social media are seen by other people.