Michael Bennett “almost threw up” after hearing Sam Bradford comments

Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett never minces words. On Tuesday, he used those words to turn Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford to mincemeat.

“I just almost threw up,” Bennett told ESPN 710 regarding Bradford’s abandoned desire to be traded after the Eagles traded up to No. 2 in the draft, via Sheil Kapadia of ESPN.com. “I can’t believe Sam Bradford is complaining about making $40 million in the next two years, and because he actually has to compete for a position. This guy, this guy right here definitely sets a bad tone of what a player should be.

“If I was his teammate . . . how can you play with a guy that doesn’t want to compete at a high level and feels like his position should be solidified without even putting up the stats or the wins to back that up?”

Bennett’s remarks invite speculation regarding what Bradford’s teammates think, even though none of them have said anything about the situation. Chances are that if he performs well, nobody will say anything. If he struggles, however, it could make them more likely to get on the Carson Wentz bandwagon.

Michael Sam to Address Students at 14th Annual Class Day

National College Association of Athletics (NCAA) All-American Football Player and National Football League (NFL) Free Agent Michael Sam, the first openly gay football player to be drafted into the NFL, will address the graduating Class of 2016 on Emory’s 14th annual Class Day, according to Class Day Chair and Goizueta Business School senior Max Mayblum.

Sam will speak on Thursday, May 5, at Glenn Memorial Church.

“I am very pleased that [Sam] has agreed to speak at Class Day,” Michael Kloss, executive director for the Office of University Events, wrote in an email to the Wheel. “He is an inspiration[al] speaker and we look forward to hearing his presentation to the graduating seniors.”

Student input drove the Class Day speaker selection process, Mayblum said. A committee of 10 to 15 juniors and seniors was created with consideration to students’ involvement on campus, outside connections and previous experience with Class Day planning, Mayblum said. He added that the students on the committee are those “who best represent everyone in [their] senior class.”

Near the beginning of this semester, student committee members generated a preliminary list of potential speakers whom Kloss ultimately contacted based on feasibility, Mayblum said.

In addition to Sam, the list also included comedians Steve Harvey and Tyler Perry.

Macklemore, with whom an Emory student had a connection, was also on the committee’s list, but Macklemore was unavailable to speak at Class Day.

Emory’s first Class Day speaker was Danny Glover, followed by similarly well-known personalities such as Chelsea Handler, Adam Richman, Kenneth Cole, Ben and Jerry, Mia Farrow, Peyton Manning and Bill Nye, Kloss wrote.

However, Mayblum said that Emory’s past Class Day speakers have been “pretty homogenous in what they have to offer,” adding that, “No one that we’ve brought in the past has any story like Michael Sam’s.”

Mayblum said that he is excited for Emory to host Sam, and that he expects other students to express similar reactions. “The goal of this is to have someone who’s attractive to everyone in some sort of way,” he said.

Mayblum added that if students maintain open minds, they are guaranteed to “latch onto” something in Sam’s speech.

“Michael Sam made history with the NFL, so he’s going to really draw a lot of attraction from people who like sports, people who want to be involved with the LGBTQ community, people of color [and] people in Atlanta,” he said. “I think altogether, he’s a very well-rounded individual for the speech, and I think he has a really unique message to bring.”

Adam Lambert, Sam Smith, Michael Sam, Jussie Smollett, Clay Aiken: Out's Most Eligible Bachelors

Singers Adam Lambert, Clay Aiken and Sam Smith, football player Michael Smith and actor Jussie Smollett lead gay glossy Out's annual survey to find the planet's most dateable gay man.



Out is asking readers to vote on their favorites and will announce the winners next month.

Men nominated range from fashion icons to politicians to singers, including last year's winner, Adam Lambert.

Nominees looking to unseat Lambert include YouTuber Aaron Rhodes, actor/singer Jonathan Groff, figure skater Adam Rippon, actor Adrian Anchondo, TV personality Billy Eichner, singer Alejandro Ghersi, YouTuber Tyler Oakley, actor/singer Alex Newell, director Andrew Haigh, model Nyle Dimarco, TV personality Andy Cohen, actor Anthony Wayne, singer Aubrey Allicock, YouTuber Austin Rhodes, actor Andrew Scott, fashion designer Alexander Wang, actor/singer Billy Porter, football player Brad Thorson, actor Charlie Carver, CEO Chris Salgardo, author Christopher Stoddard, designer Cliff Fong, SVP Joe Valentino, TV personality Frankie Grande, actor Cole Doman, actor Colman Domingo, activist Deray Mckesson, actor Drew Droege, singer Eli Lieb, model Eric Rutherford, blogger Frank Lowe, baseball player David Denson, singer Frank Ocean, actor/writer Gabe Liedman, director Gregg Araki, comedian Jeffery Self, YouTuber Joey Graceffa, designer John Targon, figure skater Johnny Weir, actor Jonny Beauchamp, entrepreneur Lorenzo Martone, YouTuber Kyle Krieger, model Jon Kortajarena, rugby player Keegan Hirst, powerlifter Kinnon Mackinnon, YouTuber Korey Kuhl, model Laith Ashley de la Cruz, singer Le1f, singer Ricky Martin, designer Marc Jacobs, politician Mark Takano, author Marlon James, football player Mason Darrow, wrestler Matt Cage, actor/singer Matt Doyle, actor Matt Mckelligon, actor Matthew Risch, social media star Max Emerson, singer Michael Angelakos, actor Michael J. Willett, singer Mike Hadreas, actor Murray Bartlett, singer Neil Ahmin Smith, fashion icon Nick Wooster, singer Olly Alexander, actor Omar Sharif, Jr., activist Rory O'Neill, actor Paul Locano, TV writer Peter Nowalk, YouTuber Raymond Braun, CEO Tim Cook, actor Reid Ewing, designer Riccardo Tisci, director Xavier Dolan, illustrator Richard Haines, singer Rod Thomas, author Sam Lansky, designer Scott Studenberg, dancer Ryan Steele, squash player Sean Conroy, singer Shamir, YouTuber Shane Dawson, bodybuilder Shawn Stinson, designer Shayne Oliver, singer Zebra Katz, rugby player Simon Dunn, singer Steve Grand, reality star Tamal Ray, actor Tarell Alvin Mccraney, fashion icon Tim Gunn, actor Tituss Burgess, choreographer Trajal Harrell, singer Tyler Glenn, and actor Wilson Cruz.

A Super Bowl meet-and-greet with Michael Sam

SAN FRANCISCO — In a week of endless parties, events, and promotional gimmicks—that’s Jerry Rice driving your Lyft! Play flag football with Joe Montana!—this one seemed especially fitting for a Bay Area Super Bowl: Michael Sam at Hi-Tops, a gay sports bar in the Castro, for a happy hour meet-and-greet Friday night to benefit the Sports Equality Foundation.

The crowd arrived early—mainly men, mostly excited. They ordered pints of Lagunitas IPA and drinks like the Berry Zito (vodka, blackberry puree, ginger, champagne and lime). Flatscreens showed the Nets-Kings and Mavs-Spurs. Near the entrance, Jesse Woodward, the co-owner of Hi Tops, waited nervously. A former high school basketball player, Woodward has season tickets to the Warriors and is friends with Rick Welts, the team’s president and chief of operations (and the first prominent American sports executive to come out). It was Welts who, along with Cyd Ziegler of Outsports, helped arrange the event; Welts knows Sam and invited him out for the weekend. Sam, with an open schedule, flew out but, since all the hotels in San Francisco were booked, he was crashing at Woodward’s apartment, three blocks away. And now he was 45 minutes late for the scheduled 6 p.m. start time, which concerned Woodward because, well, it’s not like you can get stuck in traffic going three blocks.

But then, near the front of the bar, a roar erupted. Sam walked in in a white T-shirt, black jacket, slacks and loafers, holding a steady smile. Dozens of cell phones shot in the air. To these men, Sam is a combination of celebrity, hero and role model. Sam grinned, posed, hugged and shook hands, eventually making his way over to a corner where he took photos with an orderly line of fans. A pair of men in North Face jackets and business attire. An older man in 49ers gear. “Thank you,” some said. Others asked about football. Sam’s narrative is now familiar: SEC Defensive Player of the Year at Missouri, first openly gay player to be drafted into the NFL, spent training camp with the Rams, made the Cowboys practice squad, then a brief stint in the CFL. Recently, he announced he was going to try to make the NFL again. “I’m excited to give it another shot,” he said during a break. He says he’s training in Los Angeles at Unbreakable, Jay Glazer’s gym, and feels good. This trip is part fun and part symbolic. Said Sam: “I’m out here because this is the gay capital of America and I want to show my love and support for the community.”

The event benefited the Sports Equality Foundation, which launched last month. The idea: that the best way to affect change is not necessarily through awareness or campaigns but for athletes to come out. So, just as Ziegler once helped prep Sam for his interviews, SEF aims to provide resources to LGBT athletes as they prepare to come out and then support and guide them in becoming role models and changing the culture. The organization’s advisory board includes former NBA center Jason Collins, former MLB outfielder Billy Bean, and ESPN baseball writer Christina Kahrl.

Watching from a nearby table, Ken Goff, an entrepreneur and organizer for the San Francisco Gay Basketball Association, said he hopes more pro athletes follow Sam’s lead but understands why some are reluctant. “I’ve been openly gay for a while but I didn’t walk into my place of employment on the first day and shout, ‘I’m gay’!” he said. “You don’t want that to be what defines you.”

Around 7:30, Welts arrived. Though he’s known Sam for a couple years, Welts said he’s never met him in person. On his way over, he exchanged a hug with Woodward, who is lobbying Welts to put a Hi Tops in the Warriors’ new arena complex (it’s one of the restaurants currently in the running). It does seem a natural fit.

As the night rolled on, the bar became more packed, though not everyone was there for Sam. At Goff’s table, a tall blonde man in his twenties noticed the commotion and asked who it was.

“Michael Sam,” he’s told. “You know, the football player?”

The man paused for a second, as if trying to place the name. Then he remembered. “Oh!” he said. “We just matched on Tinder yesterday!”

It's All About 'Muscle'

The Obama administration—easily the most ideologically progressive in modern American history—has been accompanied by both liberal triumphalism and liberal outrage.

Three major protest movements have marked the Obama era: Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and the as-yet-unnamed campus protests that began at the University of Missouri and Yale and have now spread across the country. The Occupy movement failed utterly. The Black Lives Matter movement has been on a fast track to irrelevance, its only success having been to discipline Democratic presidential candidates to deny that "all" lives matter, while insisting that "black" lives do.

The campus protests are different. At one school after another, protesters have achieved the resignation and/or humiliation of high officials. They have extorted a great deal of money. They have tried to establish new conventions for the behavior of the media and have even intensified what may prove to be a serious debate about the future of the First Amendment. And in all of this it has become clear that the campus protests aren't about race or privilege or safe spaces. They're about power.

Seen from a certain angle, the campus protests are anomalous—the result of a freakishly improbable chain of events. If Michael Brown had not been shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014, there would be no Black Lives Matter movement. The Concerned Student 1950 protests that grew out of Black Lives Matter this fall could not have happened at any school other than the University of Missouri, because while Ferguson was national news, it was also an intensely local story. And the Mizzou campus is a two-hour drive from Ferguson.

The chain gets longer. University of Missouri system president Tim Wolfe was unpopular for all sorts of reasons having nothing to do with race. For instance, he was appointed president in 2011 despite a total lack of academic experience. As sportswriter Jason Whitlock noted, the school's curators "plucked Wolfe out of the unemployment line," for no discernible reason, at the end of a closed hiring process that reeked of favoritism.

Even so, Wolfe probably could have survived Concerned Student 1950. Except that one of the protest leaders, a 25-year-old black graduate student named Jonathan Butler, went on a well-publicized hunger strike, declaring that he would eat again only once Wolfe was out of his job. (Butler, by the way, comes from an extremely wealthy family in Omaha. His father, a railroad executive, made $8.4 million last year. In the Occupy era, he would have been part of the villainous 1 percent.) But even Butler's hunger strike probably wouldn't have mattered except that the former high-school football player was friendly with a number of players on the Mizzou team. (Mizzou's most famous liberal activist/football alum, the gay former defensive end Michael Sam, stopped by early on to lend support to Butler.)

Meanwhile, the Mizzou team was mired in a terrible season. They were 4-5 with a locker room divided over a quarterback controversy. Inspired by Butler's example, some of the black players decided that, since the team's season was effectively over, they would "strike"—that is, refuse to fulfill the obligations of their athletic scholarships—until Wolfe was gone. In an ordinary situation, you might expect the coach to step in and enforce some order. After all, supporting mutiny against a sitting university president guarantees that no other university president will ever hire you for another coaching job. But again, there was a wrinkle: Head coach Gary Pinkel had recently been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and was in the process of checking out of his career.

Missouri promotes Barry Odom to head coaching role

Missouri has named defensive coordinator Barry Odom as its new head coach.

Odom, 39, agreed to a five-year contract to replace Gary Pinkel, who retired earlier this month due to health reasons.

"We had the opportunity to visit with a number of excellent coaches throughout our search. At the conclusion of that process, coach Odom was the clear choice to serve as our next coach," said Missouri athletic director Mack Rhoades in a release from the school. "He is a man of high integrity and possesses all the qualities you look for in a successful head coach."

Odom began at Missouri since 2003, beginning as an administrative graduate assistant before joining the coaching staff as a safeties coach in 2009. He was Memphis' defensive coordinator from 2012-2014 before returning to Missouri this season. His 2015 defense ranked No. 9 in the nation this year in allowing 302 yards per game.

The move will help maintain one of the SEC's top defenses. Prior to Odom's return in 2015, Missouri won back-to-back SEC East titles with a stellar pass rush featuring eventual NFL draft picks such as Kony Ealy, Michael Sam, Shane Ray and Markus Golden.

Odom's salary remains unclear. He'll be introduced in a news conference Friday.

Memphis hired its new coach Thursday as well, naming Arizona State offensive coordinator Mike Norvell, according to the Memphis Commercial-Appeal. Norvell replaces Justin Fuente, who led the Tigers to a 9-3 season before accepting the coaching opening at Virginia Tech earlier this week.

Out NFL player Michael Sam: My career could have gone better if I’d never come out

The first openly gay NFL player, Michael Sam, has admitted his career might have gone better if he had stayed in the closet.

Sam became the first openly gay player in NFL history when he came out as gay last year – and has since had brief spells with the NFL’s St Louis Rams, the Dallas Cowboys, and Canadian Football League’s Montreal Alouettes.

However, he crashed out of the sport last month citing mental health issues, and has since re-enrolled in school.

Sam has now made a sad admission – that things might have gone better if he had just stayed in the closet.

He told NBCSN talk show host Dan Patrick: “I wanted to come out after I made an NFL roster, it really wasn’t supposed to be public. It was just supposed to be to the team, as I did at the University of Missouri.

He added that he came out publicly partly because reporters were already aware of his sexuality, from his time at university, and that he feared it may be leaked.

The player added: “I wanted to be the one to tell my own story. I didn’t want someone to tell it for me.”

The defensive player previously indicated he would step away from sport for now, though he plans to return in the future.

He tweeted: “So I got admitted to University Of Missouri Grad program this week.”

“I enrolled in Grad school this Fall to further my education, while I train to get back to football!!!”

Speaking about his reasons for quitting previously, he said: “The last 12 months have become very difficult for me to the point where I became concerned for my mental health.

“Because of this, I am going to step away from the game at this time. I thank the Alouettes for this opportunity and hope to be back on the field soon.

“Thank you all for your understanding and support.”