The folks at 345 Park Avenue may have some explaining to do to one of the 32 men who own 345 Park Avenue.
According to Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the NFL knew that Michael Sam had struck a deal for a documentary to be televised on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network before the draft. But the NFL reportedly didn’t share that information with the league’s teams.
Per the report, the Rams learned of the situation on Sunday, one day after making Sam the 249th overall pick in a 256-selection draft. It’s impossible to know with any degree of certainty what the Rams would have done if they’d known, but the information that was kept from the Rams and the rest of the league surely would have at least been a factor.
While the Rams surely will continue to say and do all the right things both publicly and privately about Sam and everything that goes along with having the first openly gay NFL player on the team, the franchise’s decision-makers probably are feeling more than a little miffed that relevant information was deliberately kept from them. And rightfully so.
Rams coach Jeff Fisher told Dan Patrick on Monday that the NFL did nothing to encourage the team to take Sam. The report from Strauss shows that the league was careful not to do anything that may dissuade a team from picking him.