Great things happen when you have the courage to be yourself

I just want to make sure I could tell my story the way I want to tell it. I just want to own my truth.

But I will never say anything about who they are, what teams they are on. I'm just saying there's some famous people, and I'm not the only one.

I'm Michael Sam, I'm a football player, and I'm gay.

Was it a risky move? Yes, but at that moment, the reason why I came out is I thought it wasn't going to be a big deal. Maybe I was naive. Maybe I thought it was 2014, and people will understand that there's gay NFL players. There's gay athletes everywhere. But I was clearly wrong. It was a huge deal.

I'm unemployed, and I don't believe I'm out of the NFL because I'm gay, but if it was a reason, it can hurt their livelihood, and you don't want to take that chance.

The most worthwhile things in life rarely come easy, this is a lesson I've always known. The journey continues.

To anyone out there especially young people feeling like they don't fit in and will never be accepted, please know this, great things can happen when you have the courage to be yourself.

The players who have reached out to me and told me about their sexual orientation, it just means a lot.

I just want to know if I'm truly not in the NFL, it's because of talent. Let it be because of my talents. But you've got to prove that I can't play this game. If you look at the film, clearly I can. So, I'll leave it at that.

It has all happened so quickly, but it's exciting, I just wanna get back to playing football you know.