Thu. March 31, 2016
Former National Football League (NFL) player Michael Sam covers Attitude magazine's All-American issue.
The 26-year-old Sam in 2014 became the first openly gay player to be drafted by the NFL.
"The former Montreal Alouettes defensive end appears across an exclusive 10-page spread, in which he discusses everything from his experience growing up gay as a Jehovah's Witness to the racism he's been confronted with from within the gay community itself," Attitude editors wrote about the interview in a blog post.
"I wouldn't say it was a storm because to me storms are bad," Sam said of the media attention his story received. "I helped a lot of people. I was so naive when I came out. I wasn't thinking about anybody else trying to be an inspiration or advocate or activist, whatever, I wasn't trying to be anything but just to get that over with so I could stop focusing on me."
"Then I started reading things that was going around, from people: emails, letters, Tweets, messages, everything – they were more positive than negative. 'People said oh my god I just can't believe you had the courage to do that'. I said, 'I'm just living my life.'"
He continued: "There was a friend who told me to give his cousin a call and she had tried to commit suicide twice. After she heard my story she promised herself she would never do it. It's amazing. People kill themselves because they can't handle that pressure and that stress. It's very sad."
"If by me living my life, I can save someone, I would do it again," he added.
Attitude's May issue is available for immediate download.
For the complete article (non-reader view with multimedia and original links),
Tap here.
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