Ex NFL Player Michael Sam Says He Felt Abandoned After Coming Out: I Felt Like I Was Used By Everyone 

Ex NFL Player Michael Sam Says He Felt Abandoned After Coming Out: I Felt Like I Was Used By Everyone 

Former NFL defensive player Michael Sam opens up about his life after football sharing how he felt abandoned by the LGBT community after reaching out to a few organizations. After coming out as gay in 2014, he was drafted by the St. Louis Rams in the 7th round of the NFL draft. Sam was later cut by the Rams during the final preseason roster cut downs, then spent time on the Dallas Cowboys practice squad. By the fall of 2016, Sam says he was a broken man.

“No one would give me a job. Where was the support that I got for coming out? I felt like I was used by everyone.”

He continues, speaking on the his lowest point were he would wake up and go to the gym, then sit alone in his apartment, doing lines of cocaine.

“I felt lost and worthless”

In an ESPN interview in 2015, Sam spoke on if he had chosen not to come out to the world as gay.

“No, I don’t think I’d make the Rams, I think I’d be on another team. I think it was kind of, going to the Rams, the owner was a former alumni and it’s in a state were I played football at. If I had it my way, I wish I would have went underrated. I could have went to a team who really needed a pass rusher and needed a defensive end. Even though I learned a lot from Chris Long and Quen, I think that I could done better and be on an active roster right now if I had went to a different team.”

Sam has since stopped abusing hard drugs after an ayahuasca retreat in Peru. He never played in a regular season game for any NFL team, instead he went on to later play in the CFL and then competing on Dancing With the Stars. Sam currently works as a speaker on college campuses for the past year.