Tony Dungy Wouldn't Have Selected Michael Sam in the 2014 NFL Draft

If he was still in charge of an NFL team, Tony Dungy says that he wouldn't have selected Michael Sam in the 2014 NFL Draft.

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Michael Sam is going to be a huge distraction for the St. Louis Rams this season. It's not his fault. But because he's the first openly gay player to take part in the NFL, he's going to serve as a distraction for his teammates, his coaches, and Rams fans everywhere.

He's going to be such a big distraction that Tony Dungy—a former NFL head coach who now works as an analyst for NBC—just came out and said that, if he were still involved with an NFL team, he would not have selected Sam in the 2014 NFL Draft. He simply wouldn't have wanted to deal with the distractions surrounding him.

"I wouldn't have taken him," Dungy told the Tampa Tribune. "Not because I don't believe Michael Sam should have a chance to play, but I wouldn't want to deal with all of it. It's not going to be totally smooth…things will happen."

Thirty-one NFL teams apparently felt the same way Dungy does, which is why Sam fell so far in the draft this year after a very successful career at Missouri. But the Rams were the one team who felt otherwise. So it'll be interesting to see if he's really that big of a distraction for them this season—or if they're able to block out all of the distractions and just have Sam focus on football.

[via Sports Illustrated]

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