Tony Dungy: I wouldn’t have taken Michael Sam

[Akrasian]

It should always be a football decision first, and foremost. If drafting Sam was some sort of statement, then it's BS......If he makes the Rams better, then that's the objective....I just don't think he can make the 53 man roster, maybe the Practice Squad?

Anybody drafted in that spot was going to be a longshot to make the Rams. But nobody else available at that spot was Co-SEC DPOY.

Sam is a tweener - there's no denying that. But anybody available that late is not going to be a sure thing. At least Sam has a history against top competition of being a fierce pass rusher - and we know how much Fisher likes stockpiling those.

It's not impossible for him to make the team - if they decide he really does look promising, and does well on special teams, I could see the Rams seeing if Sims has trade value. He's useful, but not more than that, and if they can get a future pick for him they might go that way.

 

[Jorgeh0605]

Anybody drafted in that spot was going to be a longshot to make the Rams. But nobody else available at that spot was Co-SEC DPOY.

Sam is a tweener - there's no denying that. But anybody available that late is not going to be a sure thing. At least Sam has a history against top competition of being a fierce pass rusher - and we know how much Fisher likes stockpiling those.

It's not impossible for him to make the team - if they decide he really does look promising, and does well on special teams, I could see the Rams seeing if Sims has trade value. He's useful, but not more than that, and if they can get a future pick for him they might go that way.

Just as a food for thought kind of fun fact, Jackson Jeffcoat was Co-BIG 12 DPOY as well as the Ted Hendricks award winner (given to college football's "top defensive end". I'm not saying Jeffcoat is better, I'm more saying that those awards don't mean diddly.

Sam was taken by Fisher because he was gay, however we just don't know if that hurt or helped his draft status. If he would have stayed quiet would he have been drafted higher or not drafted at all? I'm not sure. Apparently Dungy would not have drafted him at all. Which is unfortunate. We talk about taking risks on guys like Clowney, Britt, Dunbar who all could potentially cause distractions for our team, but not when the distraction is homosexuality? It's BS.

 

[12intheBox]

Is he being unfair? Absolutely not. A coach should be able to run a team as he see fits. His way is by building as stable of a team as possible. Mind you Fisher operates with virtually the opposite mentality. He loves the guys that want to get in your face and under your skin. He wants to create a tense and intimidating environment.

For what its worth, stuff has already happened. Remember that attempt at making a reality show literally weeks after getting into the facility? Its stuff like that Dungy would want to avoid.

What do you think Dungy thinks about the coaches who wouldn't have wanted the distraction of having Jackie Robinson on their team? Those were very real distractions as well - in many ways more of a distraction - but we look on those guys as heros.

 

[Oldgeek]

So basically Dungy just admitted to having less balls than Fisher?

Strange way of doing it, but I appreciate your honesty!

He's lucky that Noll had balls too to hire him at a time when it wasn't easy to bring an black man in as a coach.

 

[Debacled]

What do you think Dungy thinks about the coaches who wouldn't have wanted the distraction of having Jackie Robinson on their team? Those were very real distractions as well - in many ways more of a distraction - but we look on those guys as heros.

Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier with people still gunning for him simply because he was black. He was a fantastic baseball player. Michael Sam is a bubble roster player who would not be good enough to earn a spot on many teams. He is a bit of a tweener who still needs to find his position on the NFL field. Is he nothing more than a special teams player? Situational pass rusher? Certainly nobody is calling him an all-star and nobody will be shipping him off to the equivalent of the negro leagues if he were not in the NFL.

Look at it this way. If Michael Sam was not gay he likely would still be a bottom of the depth chart roster bubble player (at least at this point in his career). Now if Sam were a first round talent that would be expected to start in the near future this would be completely different most likely. First round picks bring the distractions and media with them simply due to the status of being an early round pick. Coaches deal with it because they make the team much better (ie as starters). Being what will likely amount to a special teams contributor and in the best case scenario a situation player. Bubble players get cut for being too fat or being late to meetings. They lose their chance in the NFL to minor injuries and the coaches not seeing enough from them.

If Sam ends up being not good enough to make the roster this will all boil over. If anything Dungy is saying he doesn't want to deal with the implications of possibly cutting the first openly gay player in the NFL prior to the regular season even starting. He doesn't want to deal with the whispers and allegations of being a bigot when he doesn't give first openly gay player in the NFL a lot of snaps. He doesn't want to deal with someone somewhere accusing every move he makes in regards to Sam being because he is gay rather than because of what he can do on the football field. And it doesn't matter if reasonable people know one way or the other, the media will make a story out of anything that it possibly can.

 

[RamBill]

Missouri coach Gary Pinkel discusses the challenges Rams rookie Michael Sam faces as he tries to make the Rams’ roster. (1:00)

Watch Pinkel Talk Sam and the Rams

 

[Mister Sin]

While I don't agree with Tony. I do fully understand. Weather he thinks Sam being gay is bullshit, it's still bullshit. Its bullshit that a lot of people don't want to deal with. Whether a players bullshit is their attitude, their agent, their off-field behavior or friends or even a media circus surrounding an openly gay player, bullshit is bullshit. And while most of us are happy that the rams aren't afraid of being "that team" that takes the heat, I can be all but certain, that none of us would want to deal with the crap that comes with it.

 

[blue4]

I'd like you to expound on this "poo" on the wall in our secondary. We've done very well to upgrade the talent in the secondary over the last couple of years.

One only needs to watch the secondary play last year. They have tons of talent and potential, true, but if you were encouraged by the safety play last year you're more optimistic than me.

 

[blue4]

[Q="DCH, post: 350086, member: 1377"]Would you feel better if we'd taken Roberson and signed Sam?[/QUOTE]
I don't know what would have been best. That's why I was saying I think we wasted one. It's the position he plays more than anything. DE project on a team with the best and deepest DEs? Again, I believe that we could have gotten him UDFA. If not, what are we missing, really?

 

[Mick]

Being black or homosexual are entirely two different issues.

That goes without saying, but the principle applies....if you are afraid of distractions, be it from the first openly gay footballer, or the first black head coach, you don't pull the trigger....so, in this instance, they're one and the same...a distraction is a distraction...my question stands...would Tony Dungy have been ok with being passed over for a position due to the potential distractions his color would have incurred? It's not a hard question for him to answer....would love to hear his reply.

 

[The Rammer]

so the hell what... move on... no need to debate anything

 

[Thordaddy]

That goes without saying, but the principle applies....if you are afraid of distractions, be it from the first openly gay footballer, or the first black head coach, you don't pull the trigger....so, in this instance, they're one and the same...a distraction is a distraction...my question stands...would Tony Dungy have been ok with being passed over for a position due to the potential distractions his color would have incurred? It's not a hard question for him to answer....would love to hear his reply.

No the principle is exponentially different, every team has scads of black players , not scads of gay players , a black coach made sense on many levels ,FEAR of hiring a black coach is a level of unreasonable trepidation far and away more potentially bigoted than throwing one openly gay player into a cauldron of testosterone.
Race is NOT an instinct ,like it or not there are instinctive problems some heterosexual men will have to gay men,they need to be suppresed but not voluntary ,toatl difference like it or not there is no logical basis why anyone would want an openly gay player if they didn't have one, but a black coach is going to have a connection to a black athlete through common cultural commonalities. Conflating those two situations is erroneous IMO.

 

[ChrisW]

One only needs to watch the secondary play last year. They have tons of talent and potential, true, but if you were encouraged by the safety play last year you're more optimistic than me.

Safety was the only position that needed to be upgraded, and what led to opening holes. We'll be good this year.

 

[Ramrasta]

I think most people are taking what Dungy said and making it into what he didn't say. You must understand that Dungy is entitled to his opinion and I respect his opinion in this case because it is a valid one. Distractions, whether it comes from Manziel or Sam or whoever, take the focus off of football and some coaches cannot function under those circumstances.

Fisher/Snead made a brave, historical choice in selecting Sam. What concerns me is that they might have made the choice for the wrong reasons. When I say wrong, I am speaking from the perspective that coaches/GMs should be making decisions solely based on football (not in a moral sense). I think it's apparent that they selected Sam, not because we needed DE talent, but because he was a gay Missouri star who would have probably been wrongfully passed up otherwise. Michael Sam had the talent to be drafted and I do believe that several teams passed on him because he was gay. I also believe the Rams took him because 1. It would make them social progress heroes in the eyes of many, 2. It would boost attention and sales for a franchise which is normally overlooked, and 3. It would command a certain respect for Fisher's courage and establish the identity of the new look Rams team.

Could you argue that all that translates to a football decision? Sure. To me though, there were players available that would have been a better use of our pick judging by our needs. Is it really fair to Sam that he was taken by the one team he has the least shot of making? That's for you to decide. Was Dungy arrogant to make such remarks like he wouldn't have taken Sam because of the distraction it would potentially cause? Not really. I think it would be more arrogant to accuse him incorrectly for a conclusion you could possibly stretch from his comment. In the end, I have full trust that Fisher/Snead know exactly what they are doing and I wish Sam the best in his attempt to make the squad just the same as I wish every other player.

 

[bluecoconuts]

When you get to those late rounds you just go BPA, and they supposedly had a 5th round grade on him... which is where most teams had him until he came out, then suddenly he was a fringe player. Excuses as to why teams wouldn't take him came in almost immediately. 7th round draft picks fail to work out all the time, it's never a waste to see a guy who's production was there and he went against strong competition. Sam has a good chance of making more of an impact than the QB we drafted earlier but people here wanted to spend a second or third for a guy they want to hold a clipboard all season. Is that a waste? Because no position group is invulnerable. Depth is never bad. The only distraction from Sam is from people pounding the table saying he's a distraction. He isn't doing anything but trying to make the team.

 

[blue4]

Safety was the only position that needed to be upgraded, and what led to opening holes. We'll be good this year.

I think we could have used a nickel and a dime corner as well. Using the safety as a nickel, well the pass defense results speak for themselves. I've never seen a team rush the passer so well and yet not be able to play the pass in the secondary. All I'm saying is that if I'm going to spend picks on project players, it would have been CBs and Safety instead of a DE who has little chance of playing. You could have drafted a safety in the 7th that would have had a chance to start on this team. But overall, it's really nothing to care about being a 7th rounder I guess.

 

[DCH]

I think we could have used a nickel and a dime corner as well. Using the safety as a nickel, well the pass defense results speak for themselves. I've never seen a team rush the passer so well and yet not be able to play the pass in the secondary. All I'm saying is that if I'm going to spend picks on project players, it would have been CBs and Safety instead of a DE who has little chance of playing. You could have drafted a safety in the 7th that would have had a chance to start on this team. But overall, it's really nothing to care about being a 7th rounder I guess.

We took two corners and two safeties. All before Sam was taken. Then we signed the top UDFA corner. Was that not enough?