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I am an openly proud gay man.
I'm Michael Sam, I'm a football player, and I'm gay.
Great things happen when you have the courage to be yourself
I needed football - it was just something to do, an excuse to not be at home.
There will always be haters. Small heroes can change society every day. It just takes time.
I just want to make sure I could tell my story the way I want to tell it. I just want to own my truth.
It has all happened so quickly, but it's exciting, I just wanna get back to playing football you know.
The players who have reached out to me and told me about their sexual orientation, it just means a lot.
The most worthwhile things in life rarely come easy, this is a lesson I've always known. The journey continues.
But I will never say anything about who they are, what teams they are on. I'm just saying there's some famous people, and I'm not the only one.
I can't think, 'Ah, that team should call me up.' The only thing I can do is stay in shape and wait. You can only control what you can control.
I'm not afraid of who I am. I'm not afraid to tell the world who I am. I'm Michael Sam, I'm a college graduate, I'm African-American and I'm gay.
I'm not afraid to tell the world who I am. I'm Michael Sam: I'm a college graduate. I'm African American, and I'm gay. I'm comfortable in my skin.
Thank God he wasn't the St. Louis Rams' coach. I have a lot of respect for Coach Dungy and like everyone in America, everyone is entitled to their own opinions.
I'm unemployed, and I don't believe I'm out of the NFL because I'm gay, but if it was a reason, it can hurt their livelihood, and you don't want to take that chance.
I sing because it takes, for a brief second, it takes a little from my past, and just in that moment, I'm just happy and I'm glad to be who I am. That's the reason why.
To be a great NFL player, you have to know what your opponent is doing, not just opposite your position but what they're doing all over the field. All the contingencies.
I didn't even dream of going to college. College was not in my definition. If somebody told me I was going to play for the Missouri Tigers in 2009, I would laugh at them.
If I want to kiss my boyfriend, I'm gonna kiss him. If they want to film it, that's their problem. Don't be mad at me for sharing a huge moment in my life with someone I love.
To see hundreds of people come out in the cold at the University of Missouri to block a few so-called Christians who came to protest against me shows you how love conquers hate.
A straight person doesn't have to go in the media and tell them that they're straight, and I don't think a gay person should do that, neither. But that's the society we have to live in.
To anyone out there especially young people feeling like they don't fit in and will never be accepted, please know this, great things can happen when you have the courage to be yourself.
I just want to know if I'm truly not in the NFL, it's because of talent. Let it be because of my talents. But you've got to prove that I can't play this game. If you look at the film, clearly I can. So, I'll leave it at that.
I wish you guys would just say, 'Michael Sam, how's the football going? How's training going?' But it is what it is. And I just wish you guys would see me as Michael Sam the football player instead of Michael Sam the gay football player.
I'll say this: I want to become a distraction! And what I mean is by making big plays and doing good stuff on the field. Although nobody would print that, because that's not a story. Gotta keep bringing up the locker-room situation because he's gay.
I knew from a young age that I was attracted to guys. I didn't know if it was a phase... I didn't want to say, 'Hey, I might be gay. I might be bi.' I just didn't know... I wanted to find who I was and make sure I knew what was comfortable. So I didn't tell anyone growing up.
Was it a risky move? Yes, but at that moment, the reason why I came out is I thought it wasn't going to be a big deal. Maybe I was naive. Maybe I thought it was 2014, and people will understand that there's gay NFL players. There's gay athletes everywhere. But I was clearly wrong. It was a huge deal.
My family was very notorious in the town that we lived in. Everyone would say, 'There goes those damn Sams.' I didn't want to paint that ill picture of me. I knew the good in my family. They didn't know our background and the adversity we had to endure. I wanted to succeed and be a beacon of hope in my family.