If Michael Sam isn't on a professional football team roster at some point in 2015, this time it will be because of his own doing.
USA TODAY Sports reported that Sam, the first openly gay player to get drafted in the NFL, has a one-year contract offer from the Canadian Football League's Montreal Alouettes waiting for him in 2015.
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Today marks the one-year anniversary of his coming-out announcement, and he is still pursuing an NFL career. USA TODAY Sports added that he has applied for one of about 100 spots to for the league's first-ever veteran combine in Arizona in March.
According to the Canadian-based website, TSN, back in November, Sam's chances of signing with the Alouettes were "50/50."
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The former SEC Defensive Player of the Year with the Missouri Tigers, Sam is not accepting media requests, his publicist told USA TODAY in an email. Whether that decision is based on his wanting to fly under the radar for his second annual attempt at the NFL is unclear.
But at least one Sam supporter still believes that his absence from the NFL has nothing to do with his talent, or lack thereof.
"A year ago, history was being made, and that history got put on hold," said Cyd Zeigler, an advocate and co-founder of Outsports.com who has chronicled Sam's story from the start, USA TODAY Sports reported.
"No one I talk to seems willing to tell me why. But I get the sense from everyone that they have a really good idea of why. And it's not his performance in college, and it's not his performance in the preseason. Nobody will say what the pink elephant in the room is."
USA TODAY Sports added that Ziegler conducted research indicating that Sam is the only player from a former BCS conference in the last 20 years to win a Player of the Year award, get drafted and fail to make an active roster as a rookie.
Both the St. Louis Rams, who drafted Sam in the seventh round, and the Dallas Cowboys, however, already were dealing whatever extra media attention surrounded Sam. But that attention surely would have skyrocketed had he been made active during the season.
But if the NFL passes on Sam again, he should have a chance to prove himself on one level at least.
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