i'm joined by chris cluey who has been outspoken about homophobia in the n.f.l., and we are joined by host of edge of nation and a contributor to al jazeera. sports illustrated interviewed many, and found that the n.f.l. draft will make sam's path to the n.f.l. daunting. what is your reaction? >> it is disconcerting. you gave some of the les inflammatory statement. >> we'll get to the inflammatory ones in a moment. >> saying that a gay player would chemically unbalance a locker room is bad. the part that is distressing was that none of these anonymous n.f.l. executives were willing to own their own homophobia, putting it on the players, saying the locker room is not ready, the players. it might take a decade or two. instead of saying this is actually our problem. statement. statements. one is blunt: another said: >> chris, since your name came up in a quote. do you thick it's different to have a confirmed player out there, and you commented on twitter that the story shows that it's not the players that are the problem, that the front office is the problem. >> yes, it's disturbing to s

chris cluey helped michael sam with his announcement. earlier i asked him what led everyone to believe the nfl was now ready for an openly gay player. >> i think it's strides we've made over the years, helping people become aware that there are gay players that play in the nfl and just trying to set the stage for someone like michael who feels comfortable enough in himself and his abilities to come out and say hey i'm a football player who also happens to be gay. >> well, sam is about to go through the most important interview of his life. why was it important for him to come out before the league as opposed to after he was drafted? >> this gives the story a chance to be beaten to death hopefully, and it won't be a story once the season starts. people will be talking about it during the draft, the combine and the otas but once we get to the season hopefully it is played out enough to where michael can focus on football and this way, it lets teams know that michael is gay, he is a football player and you know what? deal with it. this is s

joining me now former chris cluey. good morning. >> how's it going? you heard before, but this is the response to your piece issued by the vikings. they say any notion that chris was released from our football team due to his stance on marriage equality is inaccurate and inconsistent with team policy. chris was released strictly based on his football performance. >> they claim it was based on my performance when my stats were exactly the same as my career stats had been over the past seven years and those stats had been good enough to get me a very lucrative contract. the only thing that changed is that i started speaking out on same-sex rights and human rights. >> so, when you, when you wrote this piece released in may of 2013, excuse me, you were released in may of 2013. the piece doesn't come out until early january. why did you wait? was it the same sense as we heard from martin we were just talking about a culture that could potentially be problematic if you come out and speak your mind. >> i knew what the reaction would be whenever i came out wi