On Sunday, Michael Sam, a Missouri defensive end and Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Year, announced he was gay, likely becoming the first openly homosexual player in the NFL after the 2014 draft.
Sam told Jon Wertheim of Sports Illustrated that his focus isn’t on the announcement, but on his future in the pros.
“I see no hard thing about it,” Sam said in the interview. “I know what I got to do. I know what my focus is: It’s training for the NFL. Everyone else can blow this out of proportion, but I’m not.”
Two LSU coaches weighed in on the announcement, including men’s basketball coach Johnny Jones, who was asked about the topic at his weekly media session.
“[Missouri was] able to accept [Sam] for who he was, and they were able to move on, rally around him and just play,” Jones said. “I don’t think it’d be any different for us because these guys respect each other for who they are. I think prejudice is formed from people making judgment or something without getting evidence about who people are. I don’t think we’d treat anybody any different.”
Jones said the attitude in the locker room wouldn’t change because a person’s sexual orientation doesn’t affect how the individual has conducted himself prior to any announcement.
LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri said an athlete’s sexual orientation wouldn’t affect how he views the player.
“I would never hold anything against anybody for choices they make or things that they didn’t have a choice to make,” Mainieri said. “Everybody, as far as I’m concerned, is created equal, and I treat people as individuals and don’t worry what their interests are.”
Mainieri went on to say that he hasn’t paid much attention to the news, largely because he is preparing his squad for its 2014 opener on Friday.
Regardless, he noted that the topic isn’t a news story. He said it wouldn’t make any difference to him if he had a gay player on his team.
“Nothing makes any difference to me except what kind of person they are and what kind of athlete they are,” Mainieri said. “Can they help the team and are they a good person and do they follow the rules of the team?”
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“I would never hold anything against anybody for choices they make or things that they didn’t have a choice to make. Everybody, as far as I’m concerned, is created equal, and I treat people as individuals and don’t worry what their interests are.”