"There's always going to be that media attention. Brett Favre when he came here was media attention," general manager Rick Spielman said. "The NFL regardless, you're going to have media attention and that's part of the process,Rams Throwback Jersey 2019, to deal with it. But any player that comes in regardless of religion, race, sexual orientation and all of that stuff, it's going to be an environment where we're going to make sure they can thrive as a football player."
The Missouri defensive end revealed his homosexuality in interviews published Sunday. Most early projections have Sam, the Southeastern Conference co-defensive player of the year, being picked in the middle rounds. Some NFL general managers have since been quoted anonymously in recent reports suggesting teams might shy away drafting him, not for prejudice but fear of the potential distraction of the extra attention his presence will at least initially bring. But Spielman, in a pre-combine session with reporters at Winter Park on Friday, said he's not concerned about that.