There has been a lot of discussion about which teams would be the best fits for the NFL’s first openly gay player, Michael Sam, as he approaches the draft. Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross says he’d be welcomed with open arms by his organization.
“Michael Sam’s announcement is a significant step in sports and I respect the choice that he made publicly,” Ross said. “His announcement will have no bearing either way on our evaluation of him as a player. Dennis Hickey, Joe Philbin and I all agree on the same thing; we’ll draft the best players that can help us win football games, have high character and contribute to the community. If he is a member of our organization, Michael will be welcomed here with open arms as part of our family.”
Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel doesn’t agree citing the incident between Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin.
“I think the incident that happened down in Miami with the Dolphins — I don’t know the people involved there, and I’m not really judging them, but when you have a locker room atmosphere like that, when people are verbally being destructive to each other and you call it fun, I think there’s a fine line there,” Pinkel told ESPN Radio, via ProFootballTalk.
“I’m not one of the Righteous Brothers here, but we talk to our team all the time about how locker rooms are great in sports, locker rooms are awesome. It’s a great thing about being a member of the team. Guys like to bust each other, go after each other verbally. But there’s a certain point when what you say is hurtful and it doesn’t help the team, it hurts the team.
“If you have that kind of environment where people say anything they want and say mean, awful berating things to people, it probably will not work very well. But if you have a team that respects one another — I may be naive, that’s what we try to do.”