Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said he does believe Sam will excel in the right locker room. But after the fallout from the Incongito/Martin scandal, Pinkel singled out Miami’s locker room as a place that Sam could struggle.
“I think the incident that happened down in Miami with the Dolphins — I don’t know the people involved there, and I’m not really judging them, but when you have a locker room atmosphere like that, when people are verbally being destructive to each other and you call it fun, I think there’s a fine line there,” Pinkel said on Mike & Mike this morning.
“I’m not one of the Righteous Brothers here, but we talk to our team all the time about how locker rooms are great in sports, locker rooms are awesome. It’s a great thing about being a member of the team. Guys like to bust each other, go after each other verbally. But there’s a certain point when what you say is hurtful and it doesn’t help the team, it hurts the team. If you have that kind of environment where people say anything they want and say mean, awful berating things to people, it probably will not work very well. But if you have a team that respects one another — I may be naive, that’s what we try to do.”
Martin actually came out in support of Sam last night, writing on Twitter “Hats off to you Michael Sam, that takes some guts.” Cornerback Brent Grimes said sexual preference is no one’s business.
