With less than an hour to go until kickoff on the 2014 NFL season, NBC Sports kicked off a new season of predictably left-of-center political pontifications.
Holding that dubious honor tonight was Sports Illustrated senior writer and NBC Sports contributor Peter King, who, during pre-game analysis, insisted that the Dallas Cowboys signing rookie defensive end Michael Sam to their practice squad delivered the National Football League from a “nightmare situation” in which the first openly-gay NFL draftee failed to make a roster. No one else on the broadcast took exception to that line of argument. My colleague Curtis Houck transcribed the statement, which you can read below the page break [LISTEN to MP3 audio here; WATCH video below page break]:
NBC’s NFL Kickoff 2014
09/04/14
7:46:50 p.m.
27 seconds
PETER KING: Dan, when the Rams waived Michael Sam, the first openly-gay player trying to make an NFL roster, he was unemployed for two days. During that time, a league official contacted multiple teams asking if they had evaluated Sam as a possible practice squad player. Now, Sam, and the NFL avoided a nightmare situation when he signed with the practice squad of the Dallas Cowboys on Wednesday.
Fortunately the much-overblown Redskins name controversy did not come up on the program, but we fully anticipate it will in a future NBC broadcast, if not during Bob Costas's halftime coverage.
