I seriously could give a flying **** man. If people want to buy them, he should make shirts. This is america. Make every dime he can.

The reality is that now that he's openly gay people are going to get mad every time he's actually 'open' about it and subsequently will be all "you're ramming it down my throat!!" Ahem... no pun intended.

A legitimate option, and perhaps the one that Sam should have taken.

It reads like by 'politicized' you mean 'makes me think about the various inequalities suffered by [insert lesser-privileged group here].' But football already is politicized in so many ways.

Gay

I wouldn't have a problem with him profiting off of it either.

If he hadn't previously said he didn't want attention called to it and wanted to just concentrate on football.

I do think it's more than a coincidence that the shirts are really coming out now, after he found out he's probably a last day draft pick...

When I tune in to NFLN on a February Tuesday, I want to hear about the upcoming combine and impending free agency moves.

I don't want 12-plus hours of "real American hero".

I think Sam was fine doing what he did.

I'd rather make money (selling shirts) than spending it (on lawyers), plus the legal issues are probably more of a distraction than a guy needs when he's preparing to enter the NFL.

Anyone who drafts this clown needs their head examined.

When I take his whole situation into account, I just don't see what the problem is.

No matter what anyone wants (Including sam) the possibility of this being a 'non issue' is exactly zero percent. He may as well roll with it rather than allow himself to be distracted by it.

I don't understand how offering shirts on his website is "pushing his agenda". Chances are, the majority of people visiting that website are there because they are interested in his coming out.

My guess is that his publicist (or whoever the hell else manages his website - I guarantee that he doesn't do it himself) made the decision to create merchandise that most fit what the visitors of the site would be interested in buying. It's standard sales practice. No more, no less.

I just wish he would have been honest from the get-go.

You won't get 12-plus hours of this, even now in the midst of the story you don't get that much coverage. And once we, as a culture, move past this sort of thing being news you won't have to worry about non-football content like this on football programming. But we have to actually move past it first. This is the moving past it.

I DID get 12-plus hours of it.

And we have entire cable networks dedicated to political grandstanding.

The country loves being polarized. This utopia where all move on doesn't exist.

Just because he put up gay stuff in the merchandise section of his website he's not being honest about focusing on football?

He's not advertising. He's not speaking at gay rights functions. He didn't call up Time Magazine and tell them all about the gay shirts on his website. They've probably been there for weeks. Hell, the only reason we're even having this conversation is because Prison Bitch just plain doesn't care about sexuality and wishes everyone would keep it to him or herself!

Again, the hypocrisy in this thread is far more about people like Prison Bitch than it is about Michael Sam.

He's going to be a great role model for kids all over the country.

I can see it now.


kid: Dad, what is that rainbow shirt about?
dad: Son that shirt means they support Michael Sam.

kid: Dad, who is Michael Sam?
dad: Son he's the first openly gay player in the NFL.

kid: Dad, what does gay mean?
dad: Son that means he likes guys not girls.

kid: Dad, what does that mean?
dad: Son that means he has sex with guys.

kid: Dad, what does that mean?
dad: Son that means he likes to suck cock.

kid: Dad, what else does that mean?
dad: Son it means he also takes it up the ass.

kid: Dad, why does he do that?
dad: Son because he's gay.

kid: Dad is it OK if I suck cock?
dad: NO!

kid: But dad, the NFL says it's OK.
dad: NO!

kid: But dad why not?
dad: Go ask your mother.


This is gonna end well.

Thread tangent / pet peeve. Why the hell do pro-gay people have such a hard ****ing time understanding what a damned phobia is? FFS, a phobia is a fear of something - just because you don't support something or don't like it doesn't mean you fear it. Every time someone responds with a misplaced 'homophobic', they should have 'dumbass' tattooed across their forehead.