Team that drafts Michael Sam faces boycott, says top D.C. lobbying firm pushing bill that would ban openly gay football players

The NFL draft begins today, and if Michael Sam is hand-picked by an NFL team over the next three days, he’d become the first openly gay player in the National Football League.

The team that takes that step to pick up the 6-foot-2, 260-pound defensive end from Missouri could also face a boycott if they do.

Jack Burkman, head of a top D.C. lobbying firm, who is pushing a bill that would ban openly gay players from the NFL and other professional sports, announced he will leverage his political clout to make sure that team gets roughed up financially.

“We shall exercise our First-Amendment rights and shall not stop until the drafting NFL franchise cannot sell a single ticket, jersey or  autographed football,” says Burkman. “In short, we shall be relentless.”

Burkman LLC is now in the process of forming powerful grassroots organizations in 27 of the 50 states. He states that all of these organizations shall be vigorously deployed in the boycott. In addition, Burkman says his group is building a coalition of evangelical Christian leaders from across the nation to take part in a protest if Sam is drafted.

Although Burkman’s “American Decency Act of 2014” has been widely discussed by both national and local news outlets, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL team owners have so far refused to weigh in. Sam himself weighed in on Twitter.

“The NFL may not fear boycotts from the populist right,” Burkman said. “The NFL like most of the rest of American business is about to learn that when you trample the Christian community and Christian values, there will be a terrible financial price to pay.”

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