Tony Dungy releases statement on Michael Sam comments

On Monday, comments from former NFL coach and current analyst Tony Dungy surfaced. The comments caused some backlash for Dungy, who said that he would not have drafted Michael Sam because of distractions, and now he has responded.

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Dungy released a statement to clarify his comments which apparently came from an interview he conducted weeks ago.

Pro Football Talk released the statement in its entirety.

Dungy was surprised to see that his comments generated so much attention and he apologized — somewhat — that he continued to add to the media distraction centering around Michael Sam.

"What I was asked about was my philosophy of drafting, a philosophy that was developed over the years, which was to minimize distractions for my teams.I do not believe Michael’s sexual orientation will be a distraction to his teammates or his organization.I do, however, believe that the media attention that comes with it will be a distraction. Unfortunately we are all seeing this play out now, and I feel badly that my remarks played a role in the distraction.I wish Michael Sam nothing but the best in his quest to become a star in the NFL and I am confident he will get the opportunity to show what he can do on the field.My sincere hope is that we will be able to focus on his play and not on his sexual orientation."

Dungy also said that Sam’s sexual orientation should not affect his opportunity to play in the NFL and he says he would not have had an issue with Sam on his team, which the out of context quotes earlier this week seemed to imply.

"I was not asked whether or not Michael Sam deserves an opportunity to play in the NFL. He absolutely does.I was not asked whether his sexual orientation should play a part in the evaluation process. It should not.I was not asked whether I would have a problem having Michael Sam on my team. I would not."

Hopefully Dungy’s statement will put this latest story to rest and we can focus on football.

This latest situation simply serves as a reminder that every should think twice about what they say when it comes to such a controversial topic, especially when you have a platform like Tony Dungy.