The Montreal Alouettes have signed Michael Sam to a two-year contract, the team announced Friday.
“With the signing of Michael Sam, we have become a better organization today,” Alouettes general manager Jim Popp said in a statement. “Not only have we added an outstanding football player, we have added even a better person that brings dignity, character, and heart to our team.”
Sam, the first openly gay player to be drafted into the NFL, was a seventh-round draft pick for the St Louis Rams, where he spent the offseason and training camp. He was released despite a productive preseason and picked up for the Dallas Cowboys’ 10-man practice squad, but never made the 53-man roster and was waived in October.
Now the 6ft 2in, 260lb defensive end is headed north to join a team that finished second in the CFL’s East Division and won their playoff opener against the BC Lions before falling to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the division finals.
“I am very excited and proud to join the Montreal Alouettes and want to thank team owner Robert Wetenhall, general manager Jim Popp and head coach Tom Higgins for this opportunity,” said Sam, who will be formally introduced at a press conference Tuesday at the Montreal Airport Marriott. “I cannot wait to put on the pads, get back on the field and work hard each and every day with my teammates to bring a Grey Cup to the great fans here in Montreal.”
Within an hour of Friday’s announcement, Alouettes jerseys with Sam’s name and number were on sale at the team’s website for $139.95.
Montreal, which last won the Grey Cup in 2010, had eyed the 25-year-old since his college days. He was placed on the team’s negotiation list – a roll of up to 35 players that gives a team exclusive rights to a player if he decides to play in the CFL – during his senior season at the University of Missouri, when he was named the Tigers’ Most Valuable Player and SEC co-defensive player of the year.
“The CFL is cut out perfectly for his style,” Popp told the Montreal Gazette in March. “It would give him the opportunity to do what he does best.”
In December, Sam dismissed the idea his sexuality compromised his ability to make an NFL roster in an Oprah Winfrey Network documentary.
“I don’t like to think that way,” Sam said. “But I do believe I’m a very talented football player and I’m going to continue working hard and try to get that opportunity to play in the league.”
Sam worked out at the inaugural NFL veterans combine in March, when he acknowledged the possibility of joining the Canadian league.
“If that’s the opportunity, I’ll take it,” he said of the CFL. “I’m a fighter and I’m going to keep fighting.”
The Alouettes open their regular season at home with a nationally televised game against the Ottawa Redblacks on 25 June.
