Michael Sam, the college football star who is poised to be the first openly gay player in the NFL, liked what he heard from Dallas sportscaster Dale Hansen, who said it's time for the league to celebrate athletes' differences.
"Loved your segment, agreed with everything you said #GetEmDale," the University of Missouri defensive lineman tweeted after Hansen's commentary aired Wednesday on WFAA.
Hansen, whose segment quickly went viral, blasted some NFL officials for tolerating criminal behavior while anonymously sniping that Sam would not be welcomed in locker rooms.
"Players caught in hotel rooms with illegal drugs and prostitutes? We know they're welcome. Players accused of rape and pay the woman to go away? You lie to police trying to cover up a murder?
"We're comfortable with that," Hansen said.
"You love another man? Well, now you've gone too far!"
He added, "I'm not always comfortable when a man tells me he's gay; I don't understand his world. But I do understand that he's part of mine."