Despite no longer playing in the National Football League, Michael Sam, the first openly gay player drafted into the NFL, continues to pursue his love of football, taking on a job as a coach for a team in Spain.
Hired by the Barcelona Dragons, Sam, a former defensive end, will be an assistant defensive line coach, will be working with defensive linemen and edge rushers.
“I am extremely grateful for the opportunity joining the Barcelona Dragons organization,” Sam said in a statement published on the team’s Instagram page. “I want to thank GM Bart Iaccarino, HC Andrew Weidinger, and the Barcelona team. I hope to contribute however I can to help the defensive line to be the best pass rushers in the European League.”
Barcelona Dragons logo
Now 32 years old, Sam made history as the first openly gay player in the NFL when he was drafted by the St. Louis Rams in 2014. Although he was part of the team’s official 90-man preseason roster, and played a few preseason games, he failed to make the final 53-man roster and never played in a regular season game. He was later picked up by the Dallas Cowboys and added to their practice squad, but was released before ever seeing the field.
In May 2015, Sam made history again, signing with a Canadian Football League team (the Montreal Alouettes) and becoming the first openly gay player in the CFL. His time in the CFL would be rocky; at one point, Sam returned to his home in Texas due to unstated personal reasons. However, Sam did get the opportunity to play in an actual game for the Alouettes.
Sam’s football playing career would come to an end just a couple months later with him announcing retirement in August 2015 for mental health reasons.
Though Sam’s time playing professional football was brief, he made history twice — becoming the first openly gay player in two separate leagues. Now, he will have a chance to carve an even more impactful legacy as a coach.
In Italian filmmaker Pasquale Marrazzo's forthcoming drama The Neighbor, two young men in a relationship are repeatedly bullied by a group of neo-Nazis. The increasingly virulent attacks test their love, and reveal an underlying loathing towards their relationship from family members.
The film, starring Michele Costabile and Jacopo Costantini, will be released in U.S. theaters on June 2, followed by a digital and DVD release on June 6 from Dark Star Pictures and Uncork’d Entertainment.
The film features a score is by noted composer Teho Teardo (House of Gucci).
Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey has forced a high-ranking state education official to resign over a teacher training manual.
The governor deemed the manual "woke" for addressing structural racism and encouraging teachers to acknowledge the "dignity" of LGBTQ students.
Gina Maiola, the communications director for Ivey's office, said the governor had accepted the resignation of Secretary of Early Childhood Education Barbara Cooper after learning of a pre-K educator resource book from a nationally accredited teaching organization that urged educators to be aware of the different backgrounds of their students and the unique challenges they may face.
Netflix is mixing up one of its most popular dating shows with the upcoming season of its program The Ultimatum: Queer Love, which takes the format and introduces some very important representation.
In a refreshing departure from traditional cisgendered dating reality tropes, this forthcoming season is set to feature five couples from the LGBTQ community. Each couple will navigate the ups and downs of relationships, with brutal honesty, while hitting significant crossroads along the way.
In the show, one partner in each couple will be ready for marriage, while the other may have doubts. An ultimatum will be issued, and in just eight weeks, each couple will have to make a life-changing decision: either get married or move on and find love elsewhere.
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