While he continues his push toward an NFL career, Michael Sam is making good use of the spotlight. Sam made his debut Monday on the latest season of ABC's Dancing With The Stars.
Sam danced the cha-cha to the popular song Uptown Funk, by Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson. The judges awarded him 26 out of 40 possible points -- a decent showing for any dancer's first week.
Sam follows a long and accomplished line of football players to compete on the reality show, including past winners Emmitt Smith, Donald Driver and Hines Ward. One big difference: Those guys already had accomplished NFL careers under their belts, whereas Sam is still trying to get his started.
As the package reveals, those pursuits have not been shelved for his season on Dancing With The Stars. His professional dance partner, Peta Murgatroyd, said that Sam is putting in three hours of football training every day -- and then joining her to dance for four hours.
Whatever happens going forward, Sam is far from the worst athlete to appear on DWTS, where past athletes including Keyshawn Johnson, Metta World Peace and last season's Lolo Jones all got the boot after the first week. Sam is likely to stick around a little longer, provided he improves his footwork.
"Everything about the dancing was terrific, but your footwork was atrocious," head judge Len Goodman said.
Voting for this week has closed, and the first elimination will be announced next Monday night.
