Former NFL defensive back Wade Davis has said that he believes the league is ready for openly gay defensive end Michael Sam.

The former Missouri Tigers player, who is the reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year, announced that he is gay in an interview yesterday, which will make him the first openly gay player in the NFL if he is selected by a team in May's Draft.

Davis, who came out nine years after retiring, told NFL AM: "I guarantee it will [welcome him]. All locker rooms have one kind of identity, 'I can mess with you, but no-one else can'. And I'm sure that his teammates will say, 'This guy can play'. Michael is a football player through and through. It speaks to the idea that his team that played in the SEC loved him, embraced him.

"He was a team leader, so I don't think that he'll have a problem in the NFL, either. The SEC is probably like the minor leagues of the NFL, so if he could survive there, do an amazing job there and be accepted there, the NFL will be no different.

"Michael Sam is one of the most confident guys I've ever met. He understood the gravity of this moment, but he definitely wasn't overwhelmed by it. His main focus was, 'How can I get this hoopla out of the way so I can start training?' Whenever you have someone kind of living their own truths, it changes the world for the better. I can't say whether or not it'll start having other players to come out, but I think his visibility is transformative in itself."

In his senior college season, Sam recorded 11.5 sacks, tying Missouri's single-season sacks record in the process.