In a cover story for GQ, Michael
Sam, the NFL's first openly gay player to be drafted, discusses his
difficult childhood.
Sam was cut by the St. Louis Rams
before the start of the season and lasted seven weeks on the Cowboys'
10-man practice squad before being let go. He is currently unsigned.
The 24-year-old Sam is among the six
celebrities named GQ's Men (and Women) of 2014.
“Only a handful of people really know
how I was raised,” Sam
said. “Certain family members weren’t…there. They were
ghosts. My brothers were the ones who were there. Most of the time,
that was scary. I tried to stay away as much as possible.”
“We called the cops on my brothers so
many times I can’t even count. Not only for hurting me. They’d
abuse my sisters. Verbally abuse my mom. My brothers were evil
people. I don’t have a relationship with them now. They’ve both
written me letters from prison. For them to dare to call themselves
my brothers – can’t live with that.”
His teammates became his family.
“I needed football – it was just
something to do, an excuse to not be at home,” Sam explains. “When
I played in junior high and high school, it was a hobby. I was just
trying to get away from something. That was the only reason I did it.
Being with the guys on the team at Hitchcock was my real family.
Mizzou was my real family. I loved it. Football was a sense of home.
A home I never had.”
GQ's annual Men of the Year
issue is available on newsstands now in New York and Los Angeles and
nationally November 25.