Michael Sam, the first openly gay player to be drafted by an NFL team, has been cut by the St Louis Rams.
The 24-year-old University of Missouri standout, who had announced he was gay in February, was one of 22 players waived in the final cuts by the Rams to reach the roster limit before Saturday’s 4 p.m. ET deadline.
Using Twitter Sam sent out a series of messages, thanking the Rams, “I want to thank the entire Rams organization and the city of St. Louis for giving me this tremendous opportunity and allowing me to show I can play at this level. I look forward to continuing to build on the progress I made here toward a long and successful career.”
Commenting on the future, Sam later Tweeted, “The most worthwhile things in life rarely come easy, this is a lesson I’ve always known. The journey continues.”
Sam could return to the Rams as a practice squad player or still play for another team in the NFL.
The Rams’ head coach, Jeff Fisher, told a news conference there would be “no challenges whatsoever” for any team which picked up Sam.
“There’s no challenge with respect to Mike Sam,” Fisher said. “He’s not about drawing attention to himself. He kept his head down and worked and you can’t ask anything more out of any player for that matter.”
Sam’s failure to make the Rams roster was “a football decision,” Fisher added.
