ESPN Apologizes for Reporting Which Rams Players Shower With Michael Sam

St. Louis Rams defensive end Michael Sam is the first openly gay player in the NFL, which is a pretty big deal. So much so that SportsCenter and other such sports programming continues to devote large chunks of time to Sam's progress on the field — and off. On Tuesday, ESPN's Josina Anderson did a live TV hit from Rams' training camp to discuss Sam's chances of making the team and, um, other stuff. It included talk of Sam's showering habits.

"Another Rams defensive player told me that 'Sam is respecting our space' and that, from his perspective, he seems to think that Michael Sam is kind of waiting to take a shower, as not to make his teammates feel uncomfortable," Anderson said at one point. Clearly, that is a pretty weird thing to be reporting on. What is this, sixth grade gym class? It's a shower, dummy. You get clean and then you towel off and then you go home. Jesus christ, SportsCenter.

Today, ESPN apologized (kinda) for the report. In a statement, the network said:

ESPN regrets the manner in which we presented our report. Clearly on Tuesday we collectively failed to meet the standards we have set in reporting on LGBT-related topics in sports.

We'd say we're surprised, but then again ESPN was basically tracking Tim Tebow's bowel movements at one point. In fact, SportsCenter is a terrible television program. A decade ago, it was an hour of sports highlights, from every NBA and MLB game the previous night. Now, we're dissecting showering habits. Leave that to our ANTENNA Q+A, Bristol. You stick to Not Top 10s.

[via Deadspin]