Listen to the full interview via the podcast above
This week former University of Missouri defensive end Michael Sam announced that he is gay.
The timing of his public announcement was intriguing as it comes just three months before the NFL draft in which he will be one of the prospects.
If he is drafted he will become the first openly gay, active player in the NFL's history.
While many have rightly praised Sam for his bravery, eight anonymous NFL executives told Sports Illustrated that his draft stock will fall after his announcement.
To make sense of the potential impact, we spoke to Outsports co-founder Cyd Ziegler who worked with Sam as the 24-year-old prepared his announcement.
"I'm so confident that this is going to have a great ending," said Ziegler. "I spent Saturday with Michael and he's got a big personality. He's super friendly, gregarious, funny and warm. We're talking now about a gay athlete and how people would feel about it? But the real story is Michael Sam, the person. Once he gets into the locker room, the teams are going to love him because he's just a great fun guy. So even the guys who say they won't shower with a gay guy, once they meet him all that's going to fade away."
While Sam's announcement made headlines here in Ireland, Ziegler explained that it was the biggest story in the United States over the past 48 hours because of the NFL's massive popularity.
The New England Patriots, Green Bay Packers head coach and Denver Broncos president are among the franchises to have welcomed Sam's announcement and have no publicly stated that they have no issue with drafting him.
"I know there have been some anonymous reports of people saying they don't think he will get drafted because of this. I don't give credence to that whatsoever," said Ziegler, who also revealed that Sam had mulled over the timing of his announcement and whether he should come out before or after the draft. But as Ziegler explained, he wants to be "drafted by a team that wants him, where this is not going to be an issue and it won't be a big surprise."
And while Ziegler did not rule out an "idiot" saying something adverse, he does not expect any hostility to be aimed towards Sam and thinks it could help other players who want to come out.
However, Ziegler does not think Sam should become a poster child for gay NFL players in order not to detract from his playing career which is at a crucial juncture.
"Michael's role is to simply play the game of football. He doesn't need to show up at fundraising dinners or be a Grand Marshal of pride parades. He just needs to play football and he will change so many attitudes in sport and for LGBT people outside of sport just by playing."
