Video: See Michael Sam’s NFL prospects debated on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos

I feel quite certain that if Michael Sam had not come out as gay last week, there would be zero debate over whether the defensive player of the year in the toughest college conference in the US would be drafted by an NFL team.

So it is with supreme irritation that I listened to Sports Illustrated’s Pete Thamel talk about this in terms of anything other than homophobia. Let’s strike the “distraction” word from the conversation – it is cover for homophobia.

In this panel on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Outsports.com co-founder Cyd Zeigler speaks about how this should not be a problem and is proving not to be on the college level.

NFL punter Chris Kluwe is also on the panel and he believes he lost his NFL job not because he spoke out on gay issues and apparently that was too much of a distraction.

This is all going to be watched very closely and if the NFL finds an excuse not to draft Michael Sam, the “distraction” is going to become all-consuming.