Michael Sam did not inform the Rams before the NFL Draft that he had agreed to a planned documentary about his NFL experiences, and one Rams player believes the OWN documentary on Oprah Winfrey’s network could be a distraction.
On Thursday, Cameron Weiss, Sam’s agent, told NFL Live that the Rams didn’t learn about the reality show until after drafting Sam. They discovered their pick had signed up to star in the program shortly before OWN’s public announcement. The Rams reportedly will not have access to the set of the reality series beyond that enjoyed by traditional media outlets.
“It’s an interesting case that he gets to work with Oprah and have his own show, but I think it does raise eyebrows and it may be somewhat of a distraction,” a Rams player told ESPN’s Josina Anderson on Thursday. “But this is our first time dealing with something like this, so we’ll have to wait and see how it plays out and how people react.”
Breitbart Sports contributor C. Edmund Wright wrote that the OWN documentary may mean the end of Sam in the NFL and Paul Finebaum declared on Tuesday that Sam’s gay kiss made him uncomfortable, especially because it felt like something that was “orchestrated” as “part of some agenda.”
Sam has insisted in interviews that he is just in St. Louis to play football, but the reality series may suggest otherwise.