Not everyone in the Rams’ locker room is on board with rookie Michael Sam getting his own reality show.
On Wednesday it was announced that Sam, the NFL’s first openly gay player, will be the subject of a show on the Oprah Winfrey Network. On Thursday, an unnamed Rams player told Josina Anderson of ESPN that the show could become an issue.
“It’s an interesting case that he gets to work with Oprah and have his own show, but I think it does raise eyebrows and it may be somewhat of a distraction,” said the player, who was speaking on condition of anonymity. “But this is our first time dealing with something like this, so we’ll have to wait and see how it plays out and how people react.”
Publicly, everyone on the Rams who has expressed an opinion about Sam has been supportive. But the same player said that privately, some players may just be expressing political correctness, rather than giving their honest views about having Sam on the team.
“Clearly I’m not sure how everyone feels, but from what I can tell so far I think it’s a little bit of both, honestly,” he said.
If players have a problem with Sam’s sexual orientation, that’s their problem. But if Sam is alienating teammates with a perception that he’s trying to make himself a star while everyone else is simply trying to make the roster, that could be a problem for him.