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Rick Osentoski/AP
Johnny Preseason
The Manziel circus is in full swing in Cleveland, and the ringleader job might be his to lose. Plus, Michael Sam is not an alien, why the color of Week 1 was yellow and more observations with the first set of preseason games in the books
By Peter King
Here's the Rams stuff and a few tidbits(beating the Michael Sam drum as usual). If you want to read the entire article click the link.
Rams DE Michael Sam didn’t make a big impact in 33 snaps against the Saints in his preseason debut. (Michael Thomas/Getty Images)
St. Louis: Michael Sam has to beat out two other contenders to make the Rams.
EARTH CITY, Mo. — Michael Sam has been one of the most famous people in America over the past six months, since he announced he would try to become the first openly gay player to win a spot on an NFL team. The Rams picked him in the seventh round of the May draft, and now, to win that spot, he’ll have to beat out two green defensive ends who are not household names in their own households: Sammy Brown, a second-year undrafted player from the University of Houston; and undrafted rookie Ethan Westbrooks from West Texas A&M.
That’s the football news coming out of St. Louis on Sam. The social news is better than I thought it would be. Far better. Sam’s been like wallpaper. Unnoticed, fits in well. He’s said no to every national interview request—Katie Couric, Anderson Cooper, everyone—and will continue to do so, I’m told. “The only time we talk about the story,’’ Jeff Fisher said, “is when someone from the media comes in and asks about it. I can’t emphasize enough how smooth and uneventful it’s been. Mike has been great.”
“I think some people on the outside look at him like he’s some kind of alien,” Sam Bradford told me. “He’s fit in so well. He’s just a guy trying to make a football team.”
He’s managed to be one of the guys, I’m told, by not being overly sensitive. “What he’s doing,’’ said former NFL player Wade Davis, who came out as gay after his short pro career, ‘is saying, ‘Everyone knows I’m gay, and let’s not make it the secret no one talks about.’ It’s Michael Sam fitting in. I give the team lots of credit too.
When I went there after the draft to talk to the team, one player raised his hand and asked me, ‘How do we make Michael Sam comfortable on this team?’ That tells me the Rams were ready, and the league was too.’’
“I told the team if anyone wanted to talk about it, anything about it, come talk to me,’’ Fisher said. “No one has.”
The Rams made no special accommodations for Sam, and he asked for none. He has spoken to the local and national press once this summer, in a group, and then again after Friday’s game against the Saints. The most impressive of the three marginal competitors in the loss to New Orleans was the aforementioned Westbrooks, who had three tackles and two quarterback hits. Sam: one tackle, one quarterback hit, one pressure.
Sam played 33 snaps and seemed to tire near the end of the game. But he had two strong rushes, one on a fast outside move—he dropped 13 pounds to 257 in the month before camp. He needed to be faster, he thought, and so he lost weight and got a smidge quicker.
When Sam’s first game was over, he found a group of friends in the rotunda outside the Rams’ locker room—two were wearing his No. 96—and embraced them and howled, “This is the REAL DEAL!” Then, he repeated it at least four times. It was the raw excitement of a rookie who had just gotten his first taste of real, live pro football. The fact that he had just made history, as the first openly gay player in the league, was secondary in his mind all night.
“I was focusing on the guy in front of me,” he said. After the game, he was running through his mind two plays on which he thought he should have had sacks. One: He chased down New Orleans quarterback Ryan Griffin outside the pocket and got a hit on him, and another when he pulled up too soon, thinking it was a screen. Sam’s NFL debut began with about five minutes left in the first quarter, during the Rams’ second defensive series, giving him plenty of chances to prove he belongs.
The first time Sam’s name was announced over the Edward Jones Dome PA system came late in the first quarter—“Under pressure from No. 96, Michael Sam”—and a cheer rose from the crowd. Trailblazers draw more attention than your standard seventh-round pick: Sam’s jersey was the sixth-best selling in the NFL since April, and when he got off the rookie bus three hours before kickoff Friday night, he was met by a security guard and filmed by a cameraman. But his takeaway from his first NFL game was exactly what every late-round rookie is trying to prove: “I can play in this league,” he said.
Barring injury, eight St. Louis defensive linemen (Robert Quinn, Chris Long, Williams Hayes and Eugene Sims at end, Michael Brockers, Kendall Langford, Aaron Donald and Alex Carrington at tackle) are likely to make the team. Jeff Fisher is likely to keep nine defensive linemen, though depending on special-teams contributions from other spots he could keep as few as eight or as many as 10. Say it’s nine. That means Brown, the versatile Westbrooks and Sam are probably fighting for one spot on the 53-man roster. There is the eight-man practice squad that Sam could make as well, if he doesn’t earn a spot on the 53-man roster. I’d be surprised if he didn’t at least make that.
If Sam doesn’t make the practice squad, you’ll know he had a poor camp and was a non-factor on special teams. As of now, he’s slated to play one kicking team—as a wedge blocker (one of the two interior blockers) on the kickoff-return team, and he debuted there against the Saints. The fact that he lost 13 pounds to, in part, be faster for special-teams play was not lost on Rams GM Les Snead or Fisher.
Sam’s doing everything right. Now he needs a big hit on a quarterback in the final three games, or a few pressures from his lighter weight making him faster. Said Rams VP of football operations Kevin Demoff last week: “He’s got four games to prove he belongs.” Three now. Every snap’s an opportunity. Every snap for his competition is an opportunity too.
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“We don’t have any glaring holes. We do have a glaring lack of experience.”
—Les Snead, the general manager of the Rams, to me. St. Louis had the youngest roster in the NFL last season, and likely will again this year.
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The man battling Michael Sam for a roster spot in St. Louis, West Texas A&M defensive lineman Ethan Westbrooks, has a tattoo next to his left eye. It says, “Laugh now, Cry later,’’ and has a small happy face and small sad face there, tattooed forever on his face.
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London Fletcher ✔ @LFletcher59
"I can go back to rooting for the @Browns now, like I did growing up."
The ex-linebacker played 16 years for St. Louis, Buffalo and Washington before retiring after the 2013 season. On Saturday, Fletcher could root for the Browns for the first time since he was a John Carroll linebacker in the mid-90s, cheering on Bill Belichick’s old Browns.
