General managers concerned about 'media circus' surrounding Michael Sam are incompetent

NFL roster cuts wrapped up over the weekend, leaving teams with their final 53 players, and the start of their practice squads. The St. Louis Rams released Michael Sam, and since then he has not signed to any practice squad. The Rams decision to release Sam makes sense, given their incredible depth along the defensive line.

Since then, we've had two separate national writers get anonymous general managers commenting on Michael Sam. Peter King's MMQB column included a comment about three "team architects" saying they were "concerned about the circus coming to town" with Sam trying to make a roster. Bleacher Report's Mike Freeman tweeted that an anonymous general manager suggested teams wanted to sign Sam but feared the media attention.

Michael Sam is likely best suited to play defensive end in a 4-3 scheme. If a team runs a 3-4 or some hybrid and does not believe Sam is the best option, that is perfectly fine. There are very specific football reasons certain teams will not sign Michael Sam. And the 49ers likely fall into those football reasons. They do play 4-man fronts, but they have considerable depth for those end positions, even with Aldon Smith suspended.

However, if a general manager or any kind of personnel decision maker is going to go off the record and talk about concerns about the "media circus", said executive really has no business conducting business in the NFL. There has been a media circus to some extent, but it is entirely the fault of ESPN, Peter King and others. The St. Louis Rams had no problems with Michael Sam, and yet ESPN felt the need to report on his shower habits. Michael Sam showed he could do things in the NFL, and yet Peter King gives a voice to three cowards who don't have the stones to go on the record about their discomfort with signing Michael Sam. And honestly, aside from ESPN's ridiculous reports, and the multiple times now that Peter King has used anonymous sources for negative comments about Michael Sam, has anybody really noticed much of anything on this from Rams camp?

There are a couple good breakdowns of King's MMQB column. Mike Tunison broke it down at Kissing Suzy Kolber, and this article at Football Is Stupid. I realize this is not 49ers specific, but this kind of thing just annoys me to no end. There can be so much cowardice out there, and it continues to get perpetuated with crap like this. If you have a concern about a media circus, you simply do not belong in the business of the NFL.