Michael Sam made his long-anticipated debut as the first openly-gay professional football player when he appeared for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League in their loss to the Ottawa Redblacks this past weekend.
The debut was uneventful as Sam was on the field for just 12 plays and did not record a sack or a tackle. But Sam's rookie season has gotten off to a rocky start on and off the field, and according to reports from Canada it sounds like teammates are turning on him.
However, Sam did return two weeks later, just prior to the start of the regular season. That is when the problems really started. Even though Sam did not dress for the first five regular season games, he was kept on the active roster which meant he received a full game check each week, according to Zurkowsky, and his teammates are not happy.
The anger is likely fueled at least in part by Sam's $100,000 salary (~$76,000 US). While that is peanuts compared to the NFL, that is huge in a league with a $5.0 million (~$3.8 million US) salary cap where most rookies make half that, the average salary is about $80,000 (~$61,000 US), and about 10% of players work a second job in the offseason....
The heaviest criticism was reserved for one play in particular as Sam fell for a fake that led to a touchdown.
It is still early and Sam is signed to a 2-year contract. So he will get a chance to improve. But if he doesn't do it soon, it sounds like things could get ugly north of the border.
[i/i]
Michael Sam's CFL career is off to a rocky start
This is the CFL. One step down from NFL. All the GMs and coaches in the NFL assessed Michael Sam for his skills. He stunk.
along with ESPN were trying to tell us this guy was being discriminated against for going so low in the draft. Sounds like he went to high but we all knew this already
But 
...
just because he likes dikk meanwhile his teammates like "I'm getting just 32k and gotta work a second job 
"
on
