Some Michael Sam Love Is Fading

Some of the support for Michael Sam, who's trying to become the first openly gay person to play in the NFL, has been fading quickly since news broke Wednesday (May 14th) that he's taking part in a documentary series on him for Oprah Winfrey's OWN network, according to Yahoo's Shutdown Corner.

That seemingly contradicts his previous statements that he wants to be known as a football player and not for his sexual orientation, which he repeated after being picked in the seventh round of the draft over the weekend by the St. Louis Rams.

The show has apparently already been filming for a couple of weeks, with a press release saying the cameras, quote, "will follow Sam as he works to earn his spot on the St. Louis Rams all while under the intense scrutiny of being the first openly gay player in the NFL."

One unidentified Rams player told ESPN, "I think it does raise eyebrows and it may be somewhat of a distraction." Deadspin.com was much harsher, saying yesterday (May 15th), "He is another packaged product being sold to us at heavy markup -- commodified smarm at best, and at worst something downright cynical, something that leverages real emotions in service of a marketing strategy."

ESPN columnist Jason Whitlock, who'd been a supporter of Sam, is now questioning whether the famous draft-day kiss with his boyfriend, or the picture posted on Twitter showing Sam kissing his boyfriend's cake-smeared face, was all scripted.

He wrote, "It all feels orchestrated now: the draft-day kiss; the cake-covered face; the tears; the celebration that conveniently captured just Sam, his boyfriend and his two agents; and even the 'Stand with Sam' T-shirts selling on michaelsam.com. Who knew a reality TV show was being filmed? Who knew Sam's agents and publicist had cut deals to be producers on the reality TV show? This is all scripted and amateur. And devious too."