This was going to be a team effort: No one place would "own" the story.
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Bragman thought about asking him to write the story for ESPN The Magazine but quickly squashed that - He didn't want one company controlling the TV and print. The problem was, Lipsyte - former writer for The New York Times - is now the ombudsperson at ESPN. Jason Collins had come out in Sports Illustrated, but Bragman wanted to go a different direction. We talked about USA Today and Time magazine. The last piece - print media - was the big question. "Outsports has been light years ahead of any other publication on this topic," he said. No one else in the media would have been in the middle of strategy conversations, and it was a story Bragman felt needed to be told. He knew we would be talking "20 times a day" as this unfolded, and he wanted to give Outsports the "behind the scenes" story, the insight into how the story came about. Plus, ESPN is a sports media outlet with a good track record on LGBT sports issues: The story had to be the football, the sport.īragman also wanted to include Outsports in the plan. He had worked with Chris Connelly before and respected his work, and he knew ESPN would treat Sam well. He has a working relationship with ABC, who shares a parent company - Disney - with ESPN. Howard already knew he wanted the TV element to be on ESPN. For him, there was one determining factor: Who had earned it? Bragman knew the importance of this decision. The second order of business was to determine where to break the story.
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If he wasn't going to come out before the Combine, I told Bragman he should do it before his Pro Day and plan on participating - He needed to get on the field for scouts after he came out. Plus, it would be important for him to get on the field after he came out. The key was to give NFL teams as much time as possible to absorb this: The further ahead of the Draft, the less it would matter in the draft. The agents and Sam wanted to do it in late March after Missouri's Pro Day. The first order of business was the timing. Right away, there were two big issues on which he wanted to bounce ideas. We had collaborated on the comings out of former NBA player John Amaechi and former college kicker Alan Gendreau. When Bragman called me after meeting the agents three weeks ago, he was looking for a sounding board. Sam said he wanted to come out publicly They supported the choice. The duo assured him they were on board, sharing experiences with gay family members and friends. See, the reason I didn't sign with you in the first place is because we didn't talk about something while you were here, and I didn't know how you'd feel about it. "Tell me something personal about me," Sam said to Barkett and Weiss on that phone call.īarkett ran through a couple quick hits about his family, his personal life, things he'd learned on his visit to Missouri. Holding him back was the pink elephant in the room. 10, they got another very unexpected call from Sam: He already felt like he made a mistake and wanted to switch agencies. Signing Sam would have represented the biggest development in the company's fledgling history. Empire Athletes is a small operation representing largely players struggling to make an NFL practice squad. While Barkett never discussed sexual orientation with Sam at their first meeting, he thought he had figured it out:Ī few weeks later they got the call from Sam: He was going with another agency. Leaving his first meeting with Sam at the University of Missouri in mid-December, Barkett whipped out his phone to call his partner Weiss with the big news. Sam played the entire 2013 season, leading the SEC in sacks and leading his team to a win in the Cotton Bowl, as a gay man out to his team and coaching staff. It was prompted by a simple team-building exercise with a question from a coach: "Tell us something we don't know about you." Some of the team had already known. Sam had in fact told his team at the University of Missouri that he was gay last summer. Doing their research on Sam, they found various rumors on the Internet - largely buried in discussion boards - of him being gay. 52" on television more than a year earlier. They had been interested in signing him since they happened upon a stellar performance "by No. It was only a month earlier that the agents had met Sam. We knew at that lunch, Howard was the guy for this." I got a very trustworthy vibe from him that he wanted to do this the right way and do the right thing. "His philosophy resonated with ours," Weiss said.
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They found various rumors on the Internet of him being gay.