The Michael Sam era in the CFL has come and gone. Sam released a statement via Twitter citing mental health concerns as the reasoning behind stepping away from the CFL and thus his football career.
Sam’s time as a Montreal Alouette was full of rumour of unrest, not to mention an abrupt departure for personal reasons. Now, in the aftermath of his career, many have brought up the “distractions” surrounding him as part of the reason his season didn’t pan out. But we are still left wondering what exactly went wrong.
For his part, Montreal GM Jim Popp was adamant Sam could be a contributing player, and I agreed with him. I spoke with Popp again during a break in scouting NFL training camps about the departure of Sam from the team and the criticism that has come after his departure.
DB: How did you learn that Sam was leaving the team once again?
JP: I contacted him. I wasn’t in town. He didn’t show up for the game, he didn’t show up for treatment the next day [even though] he was struggling with back spasms. So I contacted him because I was worried, thinking, “Where is this guy? Did something happen to him?” He contacted me back and we had a dialogue—we went through some things and what he was going through. By his suggestion we both came to the decision he should leave so at that point I went through the process with his agent.
DB: You are in a position where guys are scratching, clawing, calling you for an opportunity, and you tell players when they should leave. Were you surprised to hear him tell you he’s leaving?
JP: I’m not surprised. It was an ongoing situation with him that you monitor and try and get a read on. He took some time to get things sorted before so it wasn’t new. I was away from the team so I’m not there every day, but you constantly are trying to keep tabs on things. The head coach was praising him and was happy with him. Praising him for his hard work— this is the report I was getting. So I thought we were working towards getting him to a good place—that was my understanding.
DB: Do you think the so-called “off-field distractions” affected the on-field product he was able to provide you?
JP: I realized this after the fact and you really don’t know people until you have them. Just to sit down and have breakfast with him, his phone doesn’t stop. It is ongoing contact from people. There are lots of people who want to get a hold of him and get a piece of him and it’s hard to be pulled in all of those directions. People may say, “Oh well, you’re just signing another NFL superstar.” Well, he never played in the NFL. He played in the pre-season but at least half the guys on our roster have played in the NFL pre-season.
So signing him for me is no different than them, except he is “Michael Sam,” someone who everyone is monitoring. He’s won an Espy. He’s followed by a lot of people who don’t traditionally watch football. Two years ago he lead the NFL in jersey sales—he didn’t play a down. Then he got Hollywood status with Dancing With the Stars.
So he is a person at 25 years of age who has a lot on him from all different angles. As he self-described in his release over the last 18 months things have really changed for him. In that time between when he left the Rams and when we got him I don’t know what happened with these things—there are multiple factors but we never got his best. We tried to help him both on and off the field as we do with all our players.
We can speculate on whether or not he would have ever lived up to his physical potential as a pass rusher. I think he would. But we’ll never know. Unless he gets himself right.
DB: There were multiple reports about animosity towards him in the locker room surrounding preferential treatment. Is that something you observed?
JP: Coaches monitor that and unless I’m getting feedback about it I don’t put a lot of credence in it. When stuff like that is coming out you gotta look to why. You talk to the coach, you talk to the position coach, you talk to the trainers, you talk to the support staff, and you talk to the players. He was treated the same as the rest of the players and from our people or from me he never asked for anything else. All the players are treated the same and that’s not from me—that’s from ownership on down.
People may say, “Well, why did he get paid and other people didn’t [when he left the team for personal reasons]?” You pick and choose who’re going to be your reserve players. He didn’t dress but was a reserve and got paid. That was the decision. If you think he can help your team in the future, if you thank he can eventually emerge and become an elite pass rusher, someone who can change the dynamic of a game and what you do on defence, than you do it.
We had 16 guys on the six-game injured list. We had three on the one-game. That is 19 guys that are paid in full. None of them were playing. So the vast majority of our guys are getting paid their full salary. For any players that have issue with that, that’s not their decision—that’s a management decision, that’s ownership’s decision. Is that media driven? Is that players? I don’t know where that starts, but I can tell you that goes on all the time, it really does.
We have players go home to take care of stuff all the time. One was Fred Stamps, one was a practice-roster guy. Nobody has a problem with that, but when it is Michael Sam it is a story.
DB: Knowing that fact would you do anything differently now?
JP: This is a new circumstance for a lot of us. It was a big deal for our league. They were excited for this to happen—we just happened to be the team who had his rights. But I can tell you Jim Popp evaluated him as a football player, period. Knowing what I did then, I would have done it the same way. Are there things we probably could have done better, sure there were. Were there things Michael could have done better, absolutely.
It was a great learning experience for everyone, even though there are other gay players—believe me, there are—this was a first. It’s a learning and growing experience. This was done to better our football team and get a good pass rush. He played in one game and played 13 plays. Is that enough time to decide if it was a good choice? To decide if he could play? The answer was no. I don’t think we got the Sam we’ve seen in the past. I don’t think he was where he was in St. Louis. I think we were trying to get him there but we never did.