Michael Sam is not yet ready to give up his National Football League dream as the former Missouri standout participated in the inaugural NFL veteran combine on Sunday in Arizona.
Sam, who became the first openly gay player to be drafted in the NFL last season, participated in the combine in the hope of getting the attention of an NFL team for the upcoming season.
While there is no guarantee that he will get another shot to play in the league, Sam said that he is open to playing for any team, but he specifically mentioned the St. Louis Rams and Dallas Cowboys.
"I'll play for whoever," said Sam, who was the SEC co-defensive player of the year in 2013. "If the Rams or Cowboys want me back I will go there on the first flight out."
Sam was drafted seventh overall by the Rams last season, but became one of the final cuts. He earned a spot in the practice squad of the Dallas Cowboys, but was released in October after seven weeks.
In the veteran combine, Sam clocked 5.1 seconds in his first 40-yard dash attempt, but tallied 5.07 seconds in another attempt. Before the 2014 NFL Draft, he clocked 4.91 seconds in the scouting combine. While his performance was not too impressive, the 24-year-old is still confident a team will sign him for the upcoming season.
"I am very confident that I will be playing football this year somewhere," Sam said. "So we'll leave that at that."
In the event he fails to get a contract with an NFL team, Sam also revealed that he will consider playing in the Canadian Football League, but for NFL director of football development, Matt Birk, their priority is to have an NFL team sign players who participated in the combine.
"We'd love guys to get signed," Birk said of the 105 free agents who participated in different drills on Sunday. "I think that would make everybody feel good. Then obviously our teams would feel really good about it. Our players would feel good about it. The future, everybody would feel good about it."
