Sam was first openly gay
player to be drafted by NFL team
Just two years after declaring he was gay at the end of his college football career, Michael Sam was back on a college campus Monday night, getting a warm reception at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Hundreds came to the Cartwright Center to hear Sam speak frankly about his being gay while he was starting to play football.
Sam spoke of his troubled family life in Texas, and about how he felt accepted at the University of Missouri, although he tried to play the game and pretend he was a straight athlete.
Sam created a sensation during the 2014 NFL draft by kissing his boyfriend on live TV, when he was drafted by the St. Louis Rams. He’s not on a football team now, announcing this summer that he was stepping away from a Canadian pro team.
Sam is this year’s Distinguished Lecturer at UW-L, joining a list of campus visitors that includes Maya Angelou, James Earl Jones and Robert Kennedy Jr.