They feel the brunt of all the media attention, not the players and coaches... their media access is closely regulated and monitored.

But I can definitely see some front offices being genuinely concerned about what their people might say... but think about what they're worried about. It's not that players will be like "Shit, I don't really care"... or "Hey, he's been a great teammate".

They're worried about the player that's going to say something controverisal, like some players have done in previous seasons.

Some orgs know how to handle the media... many dont, so I can see why that would be a concern for many front offices, though not for the players and coaches themselves.

>You can blame the media but at the same time Michael Sam and
>his handlers have courted the media attention. There are 2
>ways he could've approached it. He could've came in as
>football player that happens to be gay or came in as "The
>First Openly Gay NFL Player". From the carefully orchestrated
>draft day scene to reality tv deals with Oprah it was obvious
>what they were going for.

You forgot the third and most common option for probably most gay players that face this dilemma... stay closeted and hope they're never discovered or they never run into a particularly bigoted group of players or coaches that could quietly and surreptitiously derial their career.

Going public was the right thing to do though.... both for him AND the NFL because it assured a fair and public appraisal of his ability. He can be secure that his abilities were fairly graded and the NFL can say "See, we're only concerned with results".