NFL veteran Deion Sanders is making headlines for comments he made about Michael Sam in an interview with Larry King, Deadspin and Outsports are reporting.
"I'm not saying I condone it, but I don't condemn it," the Pro Football Hall of Famer said of Sam, who became the first openly gay player to be drafted by the NFL earlier this year. Noting that he'd personally reached out to Sam, he added, "I don't love what he do, but I love him as a man. And I just wanted him to understand the burden and the weight he's carrying."
When King asked Sanders if he thought Sam's sexuality could be a choice, the retired NFL player noted, "It could be."
Explaining further, he added, "The God I know don't make mistakes."
Sanders' comments echoed those he made in an interview with Arsenio Hall earlier this year. Although he said that homosexuality was something he could neither "condone nor condemn," Sanders said there were gay players on each of the five different franchises he played for during his 14-year career.
“He’s not the first gay guy in the NFL, he’s the first one to come out," he said of Sam at the time. "Let’s get that straight.”
Meanwhile, Sam is currently looking for another opportunity to prove he can play in the NFL after the Dallas Cowboys cut him from their practice squad in October.
The 2013 SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Year and former All-American at the University of Missouri was initially selected by the St. Louis Rams with the 249th pick in the seventh round of the 2014 draft, but didn't end up making the team's 53-man roster or their 10-man practice squad.
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