Outsports.com editor Cyd Zeigler has no doubt that Michael Sam was the victim of homophobia. He said in an opinion piece on the popular sports site that the recent draft of Missouri defensive end Shane Ray proves exactly that.
“The similarities between the two players are striking, yet while Sam was selected in the seventh round with the 249th pick, Ray was picked 226 spots higher. Not only that, but the Broncos traded their first round pick, two fifth round picks and a player to get Ray. Sam wasn’t even worth one of those fifth round picks to any NFL team.”
Sam was eventually drafted by the St. Louis Rams in 2014, but he failed to make the team. After a short stint on the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad, he was let go.
Zeigler says that Ray and Sam have too many similarities to be treated so differently.
“The two men played the same position at the same school—Missouri,” Zeigler said. “They played in the same system for the same head coach. At the same position at the same school in the same system under the same head coach, the two men—of nearly identical stature—performed nearly identically.
He points out that both men even have a “distraction.” Sam is gay and Ray has a drug possession charge.
While Ray is slightly taller than Sam, he’s smaller in every other category, Zeigler points out.
“While Sam is supposedly ‘too small to play defensive end,’ according to coaches, Ray—at 10 pounds lighter—is the perfect size,” Ziegler said.
He went on to compare the drill performances of the two men. Ray ran a 4.68 40-yard-dash; Sam ran his in 4.73. Ray did 21 reps on the bench press while Sam did 19. And in the vertical leap, Ray jumped 33 inches while Sam leaped 3o inches. Those statistics are too close to cause such a different reaction during the draft, Zeigler argues.
“Ray was better than Sam in each category, no question,” Zeigler said. “He was anywhere from 1% to 10% better. The analysis leading up to the draft offered a tepid response to Ray’s measurables, just as they did with Sam a year earlier.”
