Apparently The Rams Agreed To Draft Michael Sam As Long As The NFL Didn't Make Them Do 'Hard Knocks'

Sources say NFL agreed not to have Rams on Hard Knocks in 2014 if they drafted Michael Sam.

— Howard Balzer (@HBalzer721) March 23, 2016

I'm eagerly awaiting Rams and league denials. Just like league denied efforts to sabotage STL stadium financing vote https://t.co/1vuKPXGBqJ

— Howard Balzer (@HBalzer721) March 23, 2016

That's correct. Rams didn't want Hard Knocks even without Sam. League concerned he wouldn't be drafted. Deal made. https://t.co/LqzsYWEmfW

— Howard Balzer (@HBalzer721) March 23, 2016

I'm not surprised at all https://t.co/wGnyFpuIVP

— Michael Sam (@MichaelSamNFL) March 23, 2016

Okay, before we all freak out and start calling the NFL corrupt and saying that they don't have any integrity or some such shit can we figure out who was hurt by this handshake deal? If this mutual back scratching was such a tragedy then there had to be a clear loser, right? Let's just identify that loser then we can call the NFL all the mean names that we want. 

Was it Michael Sam? He didn't do much with it, but it still gave him a viable shot at having a successful NFL career so I think he made out alright. Was it the St. Louis Rams? They willingly gave up a 7th round pick for a player that apparently wasn't anywhere close to worthy of it, but not having a bunch of cameras around distracting them during training camp seems like a fair trade off. Was it the NFL? Ha! Lord knows they never come out on the ass end of a deal. So it must have been the homosexual community then? Well, not really. Almost everyone - including the L's, G's, B's, and T's - seemed pretty happy when Michael Sam was being paraded in front of the camera with cake on his face like a shiny gay show pony after he was drafted. In fact, technically the only loser would have been the viewers who got "robbed" of the opportunity of seeing the Rams on 'Hard Knocks'. I think I speak for every fan of the show that was outside of St. Louis at the time by saying we were just fine with them going a different direction. 

You really want to dig deep? The NFL had no choice but to fix Michael Sam's draft position. If the 'SEC Defensive Player Of The Year' had gone undrafted mere months after coming out of the closet it would have been a PR NIGHTMARE. There would have been a millions articles and news segments declaring NFL franchises prejudice for staying away from him because of his sexuality. However, the reality of the situation was that whether or not Michael Sam liked chicks, dicks, or donkeys, he just wasn't all that good at football. All you have to do to see that is look at the return the Rams got on their investment. Dude simply wasn't cut out for the NFL, but with the state of society it would have been nearly impossible for people to let that "minor" little tidbit ruin a nice, juicy, homophobic storyline.

This might be a bad look for Goodell now, but that's only because now it's public. The truth of the matter is that he was just trying to be proactive in avoiding the undeserved (for once) backlash that was going to come his way. He did just that, AND he gave a homosexual defensive end an opportunity he probably wouldn't have gotten otherwise. You want to be pissed at someone? Be pissed at the person who leaked this, because before they did everyone was blissful in their ignorance of the irrelevant career of Michael Sam. I know Goodell is a buffoon, but before you put this on him remember that if this deal doesn't take place then neither does this moment...