Los Angeles Rams coach Jeff Fisher has denied a report that his team drafted Michael Sam back in 2014 as part of a deal with the NFL that meant the Rams would be featured on “Hard Knocks.”
Appearing on ESPN’s Mike & Mike, Fisher called the report “absolutely absurd.”
“We had three seventh-round picks,” Fisher said. “When we drafted Michael he was the best player on our board. And who in their right mind would think that you’d give up a draft choice to avoid doing something like that — something that I think would benefit the organization. And you know, unfortunately, something like that is really unfair to Michael. You know Michael works so hard. He was the best player on the board. He worked so hard, to try to make this look … Obviously we had a good defensive line, but not really fair to Michael because of all the hard work he put in as well.”
Sam made headlines a few months before the NFL Draft when he came out as gay, and speculation grew over whether homophobia or the fact that Sam was an undersized defensive end would hamper his NFL career. Sure enough, though Sam impressed some during the preseason, he was ultimately cut from the Rams.
And though Fisher may just be playing politics with his comments, it’s hard to put it past the NFL that a deal would be brokered so as to avoid any negative PR over the fact that there could in fact be homophobia amongst teams.
But the reality of the matter is that until more concrete evidence emerges that a deal was made, this is a classic case of he-said-she-said and thus, both the initial report and Jeff Fisher’s side of the story must be taken with a grain of salt.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
