PAT: Remember Michael Sam?
STU: Oh, yeah.
JEFFY: Sure do.
STU: Missouri, right.
PAT: First openly gay football player to be drafted in the NFL.
JEFFY: Yes.
PAT: I -- I'm not sure the guy would have been drafted had it not been widely publicized that he was gay.
STU: He made it all the way to the seventh round, right?
JEFFY: Hmm.
STU: He did have a good college career.
JEFFY: He did. He was really good. He would have been drafted. I think he would have been drafted.
PAT: I don't know about that. He's back in the news, saying he's -- he always felt like an outsider. Always felt like an outsider. The deaths of his two older brothers, the bullying he endured by other family members, and even his mother's religion, Jehovah's Witness, made him feel apart from his peers.
STU: That's some real tragedy there. I didn't know the background.
PAT: Yeah. I didn't know that either.
I'm not sure -- they didn't really explain how Jehovah's Witnesses made him feel apart from his peers. Maybe because they weren't Jehovah's Witnesses. But nothing made him feel more like an outsider than being gay in the NFL.
He said, I had to prove myself to show that I was one of the guys. I was cut from the Rams, even though I was in the top five in sacks. Then I went to the Cowboys and had to do it all over again. And then I was cut there. I always felt like an outsider looking in.
STU: I mean, you know, he did not -- he did not perform at a --
JEFFY: No.
STU: In the preseason, he had a couple good games, it's true. But, you know, he was too slow.
PAT: Right.
STU: His 40 time was terrible. It did not look like he was going to get drafted because of his performance at the Combine, which is all about measurables.
JEFFY: Right. Yeah.
STU: And, you know, while I think it would have been -- teams did give him a chance. It didn't wind up working out. I think he went to Canada after that for a while. I really don't think that it had anything to do with it. Although I did hear that the NHL now which had zero openly gay players has now -- I don't know if it's a requirement, but it seems like every team now in the NHL has an LGBTQIA outreach program. Like they have someone assigned to each time that actually does outreach to I guess gay hockey players.
PAT: Really?
STU: Yeah.
PAT: Despite the fact that they don't know about a single gay hockey player.
STU: Well, it seems like they want to have one. Right?
JEFFY: Well, yeah.
STU: They want to say, we have a gay hockey player, guys.
JEFFY: They're going to get one.
STU: You can't criticize us anymore because we have a gay hockey player.
PAT: Are they being criticized? Are people saying, "Hey, you know what we need? We need a homosexual hockey player. We need that."
JEFFY: Well, you know what it is, is that people are afraid to come out. I mean, I'm sure -- their outreach campaign is I'm sure saying that, "Look, there are gay hockey players. They're just afraid to say anything."
STU: Right. And that may be it.
PAT: Maybe. Or maybe there aren't any.
STU: I think also it's a PR move. Maybe not. I think it's a PR move if they say -- if people say, "Well, you're not being -- you're not a gay-friendly league," which at some point they'll be the target of that accusation, surely, if they don't have gay players. Then can say, "Well, we have done X, Y, and Z. We have taken these steps." Because I just think it's just a bunch of fear from these businesses. And it's strange in that like I know of no gay man who thinks that that has to do -- like your sexual preference is something that is obviously a big part of your life. It's an interesting part of your life to you.
I don't know what it has to do with hockey.
PAT: Yeah. Or baseball or football or anything else.
STU: Yeah. It's -- the whole point is, we're all supposed to be able to do our own thing and do our jobs without having that overcome our lives.
JEFFY: Right.
STU: Whether you're gay or straight or whatever else, you got to show up to work and do your freaking job. You know, you need that Patriots' job. Do your job. That's it. Don't worry about whether you're gay or straight or whatever. Just show up, do your job. If you're having problems with someone else, that's wrong. We'll take care of it. But just show up and do your freaking job.