Michael Sam has been invited to the NFL Veteran Combine, Sam’s agent, Cameron Weiss, has confirmed with Outsports.
The NFL Veteran Combine is new this year and will feature 100 veterans aiming to get onto an NFL team. It takes place March 22 just before the NFL Annual Meeting, which will be attended by virtually all of the NFL owners, general managers and head coaches. Sam has been out of the NFL since being cut by the Dallas Cowboys in October. He has not gotten a tryout with any team since.
The news was also confirmed by various media sources:
Free-agent DE Michael Sam has been accepted into NFL Veteran Combine on March 22 in Tempe, AZ, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 27, 2015
Michael Sam has been accepted to the NFL’s veteran combine, as @AdamSchefter said. Good for everyone involved.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) February 27, 2015
It's a good move for Sam, who has come under some criticism for Dancing With The Stars. The opportunity to get onto a football field just a few days after taping the first episode of the ABC show will help dispell some of the myths about his ability to focus on something other than football yet still perform at a high level in his sport.
Sam's performance at the Rookie Combine last year was not great. It was just two weeks after he came out publicly and he was clearly distracted, false-starting multiple times in his 40-yard dash. He improved across the board during his Pro Day a month later.
As Sam tweeted about after the DWTS announcement, his top priority is still football.