The drafting of Michael Sam, the first openly gay active player in NFL history, reportedly was part of a deal concocted with the league, according to a new report.
Longtime NFL insider Howard Balzer, in a report on the website for St. Louis sports radio station 590 The Fan, alleged that the league agreed not to ask the then-St. Louis Rams to appear on the HBO series "Hard Knocks" if they picked Sam in the 2014 draft.
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Sam, a Hitchcock native who was the 2013 SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Year at Missouri, was taken in the seventh round with the 249th overall pick (out of 256).