NEW YORK, N.Y. - Michael Sam waited and waited. Hours passed, rounds came and went, and eventually, there were only eight more picks left on the third and final day of the NFL draft. For just a moment, it looked as if his chance of being picked by a pro team and becoming the leagues first openly gay player might take a detour. Or at least be delayed. The call finally came Saturday from the St. Louis Rams, the team right down the road from where Sam played his college ball at the University of Missouri. Sam was selected in the seventh and final round and admitted it was a frustrating wait. He said teams that passed on him chickened out and he should have been drafted sooner. "From last season alone, I shouldve been in the first three rounds. SEC Defensive Player of the Year, All-American," Sam said. He stopped short of directly saying his stock dropped in the draft because he came out. "You know what, who knows? Who knows? Only the people who sit in the war room know," he said. "They saw Michael Sam, day after day they scratched it off the board. That was their loss. But St. Louis kept me on that board. And you know what I feel like Im a (Jadeveon) Clowney, a first draft pick. Im proud of where I am now." Sam came out as gay in media interviews earlier this year. His team and coaches knew his secret and kept it for his final college season. He went on to have the best year of his career: He was the co-defensive player of the year in the NCAAs best football conference and had 11.5 sacks. The pick came after several rounds of suspense. The first round of the day, No. 4 overall, came and went, no Sam. Then the fifth and sixth, and finally, the day was down to just a handful of picks. When Mike Kensil, the NFLs vice-president of game operations, walked to the podium at Radio City Music Hall in the drafts final minutes to announce the Rams second-to-last pick, the crowd got a sense something was up. Very few of the last day picks were announced at the podium. Twitter lit up with suggestions the Rams were about to make news. When Kensil said: "The St. Louis Rams select ... Michael Sam..." the fans gave a hearty cheer, chanting "Yes! Yes! Yes!" and "Michael Sam!" Sam was in San Diego watching with friends and family at the home of his agent, Joe Barkett of Empire Athletes. ESPN and the NFL Network had cameras there and showed Sams reaction. Sam was on the phone bending over, with his boyfriend hugging him and rubbing his left bicep. When Sam got off the phone, the tears started. He gave his boyfriend a big kiss and a long hug as he cried and his eyes reddened. After, they shared cake — and another kiss. "Thank you to the St. Louis Rams and the whole city of St. Louis. Im using every once of this to achieve greatness!!" Sam tweeted with a frenzied typo moments after he was picked, with a picture of himself wearing a Rams cap and a pink polo shirt. The six-foot-two, 255-pound Sam was considered a mid-to-late round pick, far from a sure thing to be drafted. He played defensive end in college, but hes short for that position in the NFL and slower than most outside linebackers, the position hell need to transition to at the professional level. He was taken with the 249th overall pick out of 256. Players from Marist, Maine and Canadas McGill University — Redmen tackle Laurent Duvernay-Tardif went in the sixth round, 200th overall to Kansas City — were taken ahead of Sam. "In the world of diversity we live in now, Im honoured to be a part of this," Rams coach Jeff Fisher said during an interview on ESPN. The NFL had no comment on Sam being drafted. The impact of Sams selection goes far beyond football. At a time when gay marriage is gaining acceptance among Americans, Sams entry into the NFL is a huge step toward the integration of gay men into professional team sports. Pro sports have in many ways lagged behind the rest of society in acceptance. "Michael Sam wouldnt have been drafted five years ago," said former Viking punter Chris Kluwe, who has accused Minnesota of cutting him in part because of his vocal support for gay rights. In the last year, NBA veteran Jason Collins has come out publicly as gay, and is now playing for the Brooklyn Nets. Collins said before the Nets playoff game against the Heat that he was watching the draft and texted Sam after he was picked. "Its a great day for Michael and his family and for the NFL," Collins said. Publicly, most people in and related to the NFL have been supportive of Sam. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has said Sam would be welcome in the league and judged solely on his ability to play. A few wondered whether teams would be reluctant to draft Sam because of all the media attention that would come with it. Fair or not, the NFL — coming off a season in which a bullying scandal involving players on the Miami Dolphins was one of the biggest stories in sports — was looking at a possible public relations hit if Sam was not drafted. He would likely have been signed as a free agent and given a chance to make a team in training camp, but to many it would have looked as if he was being rejected. Now that hes there, it could be seen as an opportunity for the NFL to show that crass locker room culture is not as prevalent as it might have looked to those who followed the embarrassing Dolphins scandal. But all the reaction to Sams news wasnt positive from the league. Miami safety Don Jones posted a one-word tweet, "Horrible" shortly after Sam was drafted. It was later taken down. The teams general manager said he was aware, and was disappointed. Wade Davis, a gay former NFL player who is now the executive director of the gay rights advocacy group "You Can Play," said Sam only needs to do his job to have an impact beyond the field. "Michael Sam doesnt have to be a vocal advocate (for gay rights)," Davis said. "His visibility is his advocacy." Wholesale Flames Jerseys . 1 Pete Sampras. Speaking ahead of an exhibition match against Andre Agassi in London on March 3, Sampras said on a conference call Wednesday that he is impressed by Federers longevity. Fake Flames Jerseys . Henderson (20-3) received winning scores of 48-47 and 49-46, and the other judge scored it 48-47 for Thomson (20-6). The announcement drew boos from the United Center crowd. "Train this hard for this long, its such a long camp and I see my title shot disappear," said Thomson, who fought most of the fight with a broken right hand. https://www.cheapflames.com/ . 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He pitched well, the Giants provided him more than enough offence and they played strong defence behind him. The bullpen pitched in, too. Bumgarner struck out 10 while working into the seventh inning and San Francisco beat Los Angeles 7-2 Saturday as Yasiel Puig returned to the starting lineup for the Dodgers. The Giants got home runs from Michael Morse, Pablo Sandoval and Buster Posey. "Weve always had a good defensive team, and were starting to swing the bats now," Bumgarner said. "So were a pretty well-rounded team. Today the bullpen came in and did a great job, and the offence was unbelievable again. Its nice to have that kind of support. It makes it easier to go after guys and challenge them." Puig returned to the Dodgers starting lineup, playing right field and batting leadoff a day after he was benched by manager Don Mattingly for arriving late for stretching and batting practice before Fridays home opener. Puig went 1 for 4 and was picked off first in the third inning for the final out with cleanup-hitter Adrian Gonzalez at the plate. Bumgarner (1-0) was charged with two runs and eight hits over 6 1-3 innings in his second outing. "I was throwing a little bit of everything," the left-hander said. "It seemed like they had a lot of baserunners today, but I felt like I made good pitches all day. The command was there and my stuff was pretty good." Bumgarner has a career strikeout-to-walk ratio of 3.65, which is better than that of All-Star teammates Tim Lincecum (2.77) and Matt Cain (2.4. Last season, he came within one strikeout of becoming only the second Giants lefty since Ray Sadecki in 1968 to finish a season with 200 or more. "You dont want to give guys free passes at any time. You have to make them earn it of you can," Bumgarner said. "But at the same time, you dont want to just give in and just throw a meatball up there. Youve got to make pitches and work on command and get ahead of guys." Bumgarner is 4-1 with a 1.53 ERA in his last five starts at Chavez Ravine. "He was commanding both sides of the plate and locating," Gonzalez said. "Hes just like anybody else.dddddddddddd If he can command down and away, down and in, up and away and up and in, and crisscross the strike zone, it makes it tough." Puig came up in the seventh with the bases loaded and one out after Giants skipper Bruce Bochy replaced Bumgarner with Santiago Casilla. Puigs flyball to right field was too shallow to score Scott Van Slyke, but pinch-hitter Andre Ethier followed with an RBI single. A.J. Ellis tried to score behind Van Slyke and was thrown out by Hunter Pence for the third out. Mattingly came out to discuss the call with umpire Joe West and used his one challenge for a video replay ruling, which upheld the original call. "I had to make a pretty good throw and Buster had to make a great tag," Pence said. Paul Maholm (0-1) gave up five runs and seven hits through 4 1-3 innings in his first start for the Dodgers. "Maholms got a lot of different pitches that he throws it in a lot of different ways, and he located really well. So its always tough," Pence said. "You just battle, make him get the ball over the plate and be aggressive." Morse, playing for his fourth team in a span of three seasons, gave San Francisco a 2-1 lead when he drove Maholms first pitch of the fourth deep into the pavilion seats in left-centre for his first homer with the Giants. Sandoval, the Giants slimmed-down third baseman and 2012 World Series MVP, parked Maholms 80th and final pitch over the left field fence in the fifth for with two on for his first home run of 2014. Posey then greeted rookie Jose Dominguez with a drive into the lower seats in the left field corner. NOTES: Maholm had allowed only three homers in 62 innings during his 10 previous career starts against the Giants, all of them solo shots. ... Maholms official Dodgers debut was March 23 against the Diamondbacks in Australia, when he pitched in relief for only second time in 244 big league appearances to that point. ... Angel Pagan worked out an eight-pitch walk to open the game and was erased on a double-play grounder by Pence, who was robbed of a hit up the middle by shortstop Hanley Ramirez. Maholm has induced a major league-high 185 ground-ball DPs since the start of the 2006 season. ' ' '