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A behind the scenes look at college football star Michael Sam’s extraordinary coming out party
It has been amazing to watch the reaction to the coming out of college football star Michael Sam who is poised to become the first openly gay player in the NFL.
Of course he’s not officially drafted – yet – but he is so highly-touted that it would be a major embarrassment and indictment of the NFL is no team snatches him up. It’s one thing for the NBA teams to pass on Jason Collins after he came out since he was at the end of his career, but this would be a clear-cut case of discrimination.
Anyway, Outsports’ Cyd Ziegler wrote an exclusive behind-the-scenes story on Michael’s coming out from a PR perspective. How it was in the works for awhile and how it was decided who he would talk to (NY Times and ESPN were settled upon).
The section I thought was the most cool was the party held just two nights ago at the home of PR guru Howard Bragman who is handling Michael’s coming out story.
Here is an excerpt from Cyd’s story on that party:
Saturday night, Bragman held a coming out party for Sam at his home in Los Angeles. It was a powerful collection of guests. Dave Kopay, the gay former NFL running back who blazed a trail when he came out publicly in 1975, was in high spirits. Former NFL players Chris Kluwe, Brendon Ayanbedajo and Wade Davis, plus former Major Leaguer Billy Bean — the former San Diego Padre who came out over a decade ago — had come to lend their support. Outsports’ Jim Buzinski and I were also in attendance.
It was a rare collection of gay people and straight supporters from the sports world that had been assembled for some Chinese food and good wine on Saturday night. Kopay shared stories about Pro Bowler Jerry Smith. Kluwe waxed poetic about our broken governmental system. Davis wore his signature bright sneakers that were a hot topic of conversation.
“The man of the hour,” as Bragman called him, was Sam. His coming out party was the calm before the storm: About a dozen folks gathered in Bragman’s kitchen sharing stories and laughing. It was moving to watch Kopay — the first former NFL player to ever come out publicly — talk with Sam, who in all likelihood will be the first NFL player to be out while active almost 40 years after Kopay’s own historic revelation.
Nearly void from the conversation was any hint of concern. It was refreshing for Barkett and Weiss to see the support. They had been second-guessed by a lot of people who still believe it’s nearly impossible to be gay in the NFL.
Photo caption: From left to right: Wade Davis, Dave Kopay, Michael Sam, Chris Kluwe, Billy Bean, Brendon Anyanbadejo. (Photo by Cyd Zeigler)
Comments
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Andrew says:
Wow! What a collection of superstars!!!! So glad for their support of this moments occasion!