All American From Missouri Make Announcement

[Zeke]

I (anyone?) has to be very careful how they step here: it is way easy to be branded something you are not if you cannot explain yourself very, very well. I hope that my tenure will allow a bit of indulgence...

1. He's gay.
2. I don't care.

But you do not announce yourself in a vacuum. There are reasons for everything.

First, based upon some (I'm not digging them up, you'll have to trust me) quotes I have seen, NFL General managers were well aware of his sexuality.

3. Sams is, likely, aware that they know.
4. It only helps him to come out.

Why? Because those who are primed to hold his sexuality against him already possess that which they need, a solid inference or confirmation that he is homosexual. (Those that would not care, are not going to care whether he discloses or not.)

Every (every!) draft day decision is weighed by all parties involved. I do not find Sams to be a hero, I deduce him to be a shrewdly calculating individual determined to maximize his marketability regardless of where (if!) he is drafted.

Based upon his announcement, he's going to be able to claim a higher draft worth based in where he might have been drafted prior to any announcement or -- God forbid -- that he would have been drafted were he not. In my opinion, he's going to demand that payday and smear anyone who doesn't give it up. (Which is why you don't draft him but the NFL may be cowed into doing something.)

This isn't about being any sort of trailblazer, because trailblazers succeed first. This is about $$$.

He's using his announcement as an insurance policy.

FUCK 'EM.