Try reading my post through a more neutral lens.

Unless you are of the mind that sexual orientation effects a persons job performance, it is irrelevant. Sexual orientation is less relevant than race, age, or gender, from a job performance view; and they are pretty damned irrelevant. His being gay is as relevant to the NFL as his coach being hetero..... If he is.... If he isn't, it's still irrelevant.

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Try reading my post through a more neutral lens.

Unless you are of the mind that sexual orientation effects a persons job performance, it is irrelevant. Sexual orientation is less relevant than race, age, or gender, from a job performance view; and they are pretty damned irrelevant. His being gay is as relevant to the NFL as his coach being hetero..... If he is.... If he isn't, it's still irrelevant.

In most of society, yes. In the NFL, unfortunately, no.
From the hazing incidents, stories of players baling on teammates they don't like, to homophobic comments (not Vilma; that was ridiculous), we know that the NFL is still an old boys club, filled with bullies and other narrow-minded types. See Richie Incognito for a recent reference.
End of the day, it's a team game, and if your teammates don't support you, you can't be successful.

Sad, but I don't think this guy will survive an NFL locker room. I wish him well, because it is well past time

here is an interesting timeline- openly gay politicians, athletes and entertainers. A lot you will know (H.Milk, Sally Ride), and they date back to the 60's.

List of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender firsts by year - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So, how is it that in 50 years that no active professional athlete has come out? Because they know what the backlash would be.

To the people saying basically - he should shut up about it because it's irrelevant: If it's so irrelevant then why do you care?

To the people saying basically - why is he broadcasting this???

Um, why is Tom Brady broadcasting his straightness when he shows up at public events with Gisele? Whenever a straight football player gets married or shows up at public events with his spouse he is automatically broadcasting to the world that he's straight.

It's a double standard to say in one breath it's fine and acceptable for straight football players to broadcast their straightness, and then turn around and say, "Hey why did this gay person come out? We don't need that broadcasted. We didn't need to know that."

It's automatically assumed that somehow when a person says they're gay, they're saying what they like to do in the bedroom, and we don't need to know that. That's not the case!!! All they're saying is their orientation - that they simply prefer same sex relations. Just as Tom Brady by stating he is straight is simply saying he prefers heterosexual relations. What goes on particularly in the bedroom remains private.

As for me, I could not possibly be prouder of Michael Sam. It takes some brass to come out before the draft and to be "the first one". He's just a mid-rounder and this could easily affect his stock. It's likely someone will pick him up, but he'll probably fall a couple rounds below where he would have gone.

I truly look forward to the day when this isn't even a discussion anymore. It probably won't happen in my lifetime but you never know.

50 years ago, there was no gay rights movement. Michael Sam came out to his entire team in Missouri last August. Warren Moon has stated publicly that there were two gay guys on his team that everyone in the locker room knew about and got along with fine. Don't underestimate the NFL locker rooms. The only thing that really matters in most locker rooms (but not all) is WINNING.