Saint Louis Rams defensive end Michael Sam played in his first preseason game in the NFL on Friday night as that Rams hosted the New Orleans Saints.
Sam, who is the first openly gay player to be in the NFL, took the field for the first time with just under five minutes remaining in the first quarter. He played a good portion of the Rams defensive snaps throughout the remainder of the half and into the third quarter, reports FOX Sports.
"I can play in this league," he asserted. "That's what's most important. I was kind of nervous and got some nerves out today. It was a very good learning experience ... But I can play in this league."
A seventh-round pick in this past year’s draft, Sam recorded one tackle and one quarterback hurry. He was frequently applying pressure in the Saints’ backfield and knows that he could have registered a couple of sacks, according to Yahoo Sports.
Sam was the co-Defensive Player of the Year last year in the SEC while playing for the Missouri Tigers.
New Orleans went on to win the game 26-24.
There has been a critical error on your website.<\/p>
Learn more about debugging in WordPress.<\/a><\/p>","data":{"status":500},"additional_errors":[]}