Further Review: Lessons of Sam’s kiss

And it was all, as the headline on Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback feature proclaimed, sealed with a kiss. That between the St. Louis Rams seventh-round pick Michael Sam and his boyfriend.

Finally this draft provided a provocative and instructive moment on love and football that didn’t include Jon Gruden and Johnny Manziel.

A few of the lessons:

• Twitter truly is the successor to the anterior cruciate ligament as the greatest single threat to a professional athlete’s career. Miami Dolphins safety Don Jones is the latest to learn that after suffering a fine and an appointment with sensitivity training for his negative Tweets about the kiss. The only real cure: Mandatory rotary phone.

• When the President weighs in on the 249th player taken in the draft, you know said player must bear a great societal significance. Either that or the electorate needs to give President Obama a few more weekend chores.

• The Rams are going to be very good at congratulating themselves over doing something right. Let the back-patting begin: “I could feel the pivot of history at that moment, with that phone call,” St. Louis General Manager Les Snead told King about informing Sam he had been drafted. Think of how much more significant it would have been had the SEC’s Defensive Player of the Year been drafted somewhere ahead of the afterthought rounds.

• And the kiss – such a sudden, in-your-face occurrence and such a widely discussed one for days afterward – was the perfect opportunity for each to measure his own capacity for acceptance. With it, Sam was not only the first openly gay draftee in theory, but also in joyful public expression. Your gut reaction says as much about you as it does Sam.