Sam apparently came out to his college team last summer:
NFL prospect Michael Sam comes out as gay - Outsports
"Once I became official to my teammates, I knew who I was," Sam told John Branch of the New York Times. "I knew that I was gay. And I knew that I was Michael Sam, who's a Mizzou football player who happens to be gay. I was so proud of myself and I just didn't care who knew. If someone on the street would have asked me, ‘Hey, Mike, I heard you were gay. Is that true?' I would have said yes. "But no one asked. I guess they don't want to ask a 6-3, 260-pound defensive lineman if he was gay or not."
I'm not going to speculate how this might affect his draft stock. Honestly I don't think it should but that would be naive. Sam was being touted as a 3rd round pick before the revelation so let's see how it all shakes out. The combine just got a little more interesting as well.
As far as being a Panther prospect Sam's more of a 3-4 DE or OLB versus a 4-3 DE.
Update:
... But an NFC scouting director said, on Sam, the NFL is "still not ready for it", and says it will effect his stock "for sure".
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) February 10, 2014
DeAngelo Williams weighed in on Twitter.
I could care less about a man's sexual preference! i care about winning games and being respectful in the locker room!
— DeAngelo Williams (@DeAngeloRB) February 10, 2014