{"id":11200,"date":"2014-08-29T13:10:05","date_gmt":"2014-08-29T17:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/?p=11200"},"modified":"2014-08-29T13:10:05","modified_gmt":"2014-08-29T17:10:05","slug":"rams-to-leave-michael-sam-off-53-man-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/2014\/08\/29\/rams-to-leave-michael-sam-off-53-man-roster\/","title":{"rendered":"Rams to leave Michael Sam off 53-man roster?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_11201\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11201\" style=\"width: 594px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/files\/2014\/08\/michaelsam.jpg\" alt=\"Getty Images\" width=\"594\" height=\"425\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11201\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/files\/2014\/08\/michaelsam.jpg 594w, https:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/files\/2014\/08\/michaelsam-300x214.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11201\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Michael Sam displayed his ability to play defense this preseason for the St. Louis Rams who drafted the openly gay player late in the seventh round.<\/p>\n<p>Sam, 24, is believed to be fighting with undrafted free agent Ethan Westbrooks for the last of nine linemen spots on the Rams roster.<\/p>\n<p>Westbrooks has done every bit as well as Sam recording a sack, three hits on QBs, five hurries and has graded out atop Pro Football Focus&#8217; rankings at 4-3 ends this preseason.<\/p>\n<p>Sam on the other hand had 11 tackles and three sacks. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I believe he can play in this league,&#8221; Rams coach Jeff Fisher said after the teams fourth preseason game.<\/p>\n<p>However Michael Silver of the NFL Network believes that Sam&#8217;s NFL future is not with the Rams.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p>I do not expect Michael Sam to end up on the Rams&#39; 53-man roster. But he could absolutely end up on some team&#39;s 53.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Michael Silver (@MikeSilver) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeSilver\/statuses\/505371181659467777\">August 29, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Rams have until 4 pm ET on Saturday to trim their roster from 75 to 53 players for Week 1. It is nearly impossible to imagine that Sam has not done enough to earn a roster spot in the NFL this season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You know what, it&#8217;s not going to be like the draft,&#8221; Sam said. &#8220;I&#8217;m very confident that I&#8217;m going to sleep really well tonight and I&#8217;m very confident I&#8217;m going to be on a team, the Rams or any other team in the NFL.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Sam displayed his ability to play defense this preseason for the St. Louis Rams who drafted the openly gay player late in the seventh round. Sam, 24, is believed to be fighting with undrafted free agent Ethan Westbrooks for the last of nine linemen spots on the Rams roster. Westbrooks has done every bit [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[425],"tags":[426,739,216,173],"coauthors":[4],"class_list":["post-11200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-front","tag-michael-sam","tag-nfl","tag-st-louis-rams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11202,"href":"https:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11200\/revisions\/11202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11200"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=11200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}