ABSTRACT
National Football League aspirant Michael Sam reacted to the announcement that he was selected in the late part of the seventh round by planting a kiss on Vito Cammisano, his then partner. All the media was ablaze about this open performance of same-sexuality and the confirmation that he would be the first openly gay man to be drafted into the National Football League. The embodiment of queer sexuality tethers the black body that plays sport to the body that participates in queer desire. The consequence of this queer performance is queer failure. This chapter explores how the failure of Sam’s short career produces meanings about the guarantees of “coming out” and the realities of living at the intersections while playing sport, particularly football in America. Michael Sam is a spectacle of queer black failure. In his various attempts to approximate neoliberal, acceptable gayness he unveils his own inability to see the pitfalls of the homonormative moment.
