NFL combine in Indy will include openly gay player

Michael Sam is a Missouri linebacker who has been rated around the middle of the seven-round NFL draft. He announced Sunday night that he is gay, making him the first potential openly gay NFL player. He is scheduled to be in Indianapolis during the NFL Scouting Combine on Feb. 19-25.

Donovan Bonner praised his former teammate:

Former NFL running back Jerome Bettis said on ESPN:

The key is he knows who he is and is comfortable with who he is. That sends the message that it's OK.

Outsports announced 'The Eagle has landed':

In coming out now, Sam said he wanted him being gay to be known to the fans and front office of any team that drafted him. It would also be less of a distraction to come out in February as opposed to after the draft, during summer training camp or during the season, his agents Joe Barkett and Cameron Weiss said.

Here's a Missouri highlight reel for Sam:

Sports Illustrated examined how the announcement might affect his draft position:

The news that former Missouri defensive end Michael Sam is gay holds significant social and cultural ramifications. But from a purely football perspective, his decision to come out prior to May's NFL draft will make his path to the league daunting, eight NFL executives and coaches told SI.com.

In blunt terms, they project a significant drop in Sam's draft stock, a publicity circus and an NFL locker room culture not prepared to deal with an openly gay player. Sam, the SEC Defensive Player of the Year, was projected as a mid- to late-round draft pick prior to his announcement.

Peter King of the themmqb.com got mixed reactions on Sam's draft status.

The first GM—the one who seemed not to care about the announcement—asks the questions that much of society would ask. Should this matter as much as it will matter over the next few days? But Jonathan Vilma, the veteran Saints linebacker and team leader, told NFL Network last week he thought a gay player "would not be accepted as much as we think he would be accepted."

Manti Te'o could have faced some loaded questions before last year's draft in the wake of the discovery that the girlfriend he believed he had was fake.

Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o denied reports that he had faced such queries, but Colorado tight end Nick Kasa said a team wanted to know if he "likes girls." Kasa's isn't the first case of offensive predraft questioning. In 2010, Dolphins G.M. Jeff Ireland asked Dez Bryant if his mother was a prostitute.

The New York Times was one outlet that broke the story.

Now Mr. Sam enters an uncharted area of the sports landscape. He is making his public declaration before he is drafted, to the potential detriment to his professional career. And he is doing so as he prepares to enter a league with an overtly macho culture, where controversies over homophobia have attracted recent attention.

ESPN's Dan Graziano said Sam should be commended (story includes video an interview with Sam):

This is going to be the story of the week and the story of next week's scouting combine and one of the big stories of the draft and of the early days of training camp for whichever team picks Sam.

NFL.com's Chase Goodbread reported that NFL front offices are better prepared for the possibility of an openly gay player than they used to be:

NFL Media insider Ian Rapoport received the following reaction from a club executive: "The league is in a better place to handle this now than a few years ago given the influx of younger GMs."

Sports Illustrated's Jon Wertheim examines whether Sam's announcement will make a larger impact than that of NBA player Jason Collins:

If Jason Collins demolished one barrier last year -- declaring that he was gay within days of finishing his 12th NBA season -- Sam laid ruin to another by coming out before the draft. Where Collins is a Stanford grad from Los Angeles, Sam is more than a decade younger and hails from Hitchcock, Texas (pop. 7,200). And unlike Collins -- who surprised his twin brother with his revelation -- Sam's sexuality was not a closely guarded secret at Missouri.

Juliet Macur of The New York Times put it simply: "It's time."

There is no better moment than now to plow ahead and topple that wall with a bulldozer, and what a relief that Michael Sam, an all-American defensive end from Missouri, is in the driver's seat, bravely heading full speed ahead.