What Did You Expect? Another Bruce Smith?

Apparently, many tongues are wagging over the rather pedestrian performance turned in by Michael Sam at the recent NFL Combine in Indianapolis this past week.  Sam, as is now well known, announced that he is gay and is trying to get into the NFL as the league's first openly homosexual player.  The stats from his day at the combine would suggest he's just like any other senior trying to get paid to play, not someone the caliber of Hall of Fame defensive lineman Bruce Smith of Buffalo.

A rather average 4.91 in the 40-yard dash.  Just 17 reps in the bench press.  Only 25 feet for a vertical jump.  If he were anyone else, there wouldn't be this much ink on him, if at all.  Which makes you wonder the real motive for the coming-out announcement made by the co-defensive MVP in the SEC and one of the leaders of a Mizzou team that earned its first major title of any kind since winning the Big 12 North in 2010.  You would think the way the mainstream media [ESPN included] covered the Texas native they would have made him the second coming of Jason Collins, who by the way is back in the NBA on a 10-day contract with the Brooklyn Nets.

As much as I applaud the young man for being courageous in making his social stand, I'm not sure if the NFL Combine was the place to do it.  The NFL draft is over a month away and all the activists worth their rainbow flags are sure to point their ire at Roger Goodell and the boys if their newest poster boy doesn't crack through the ranks at Radio City Music Hall in NYC.  What this does do is take the spotlight away from another deserving Missouri Tiger who has been one of the dark horses to make the league, fellow defensive end Kony Ealy.  I personally know about this young man, having covered him in high school in his native New Madrid, MO, and thought for sure a basketball career was ahead of him.  He thought otherwise now they have the all-SEC selection at no worst than the second round.

THAT, sports fans, is the bigger story.  Not another Black man set to be used by those who really wouldn't sit next to him anyway.