Will coming out affect Michael Sam’s draft stock?

After University of Missouri defensive end Michael Sam announced to the world on Sunday that he is gay, executives in the NFL have been moving to justify not drafting him (anonymously, of course).

Via ProFootballTalk and Peter King from TheMMQB.com, Sam’s decision to, well, be himself, may well cause him to slip down or off teams’ draft boards, with one anonymous NFL assistant saying that Sam’s announcement was not smart. Not like anonymously taking shots at someone for being out and a football player at the same time.

"“You shouldn’t have to live your life in secrecy,” the assistant coach said, “but do you really want to be the top of the conversation for everything without ever having played a down in this league?”"

So a player being talked about a lot before playing a down is a big problem, but being paid millions of dollars is just peachy?

Whether Sam will be a mid-round pick or not should depend on his game tape, and there are some who have said that he may well not be as impressive a player as you would think. But how many other SEC defensive player of the year winners go undrafted?

Of course, there is the chance that teams will view Sam and the attention around him as a distraction, or that he wouldn’t be suited to an NFL locker room. But just look at Mizzou. They all knew, didn’t out Sam against his wishes, and the team played just fine.