Jaguars DT: Hiring female official is just like the 'Michael Sam situation'By John Breech | CBSSports.comApril 4, 2015 
Sen'Derrick Marks compared the hiring of a female official to Sam being drafted. (USATSI) The NFL will do anything for good publicity and that's why the league made the decision to hire Sarah Thomas as its first female official.That might not be exactly true, but that's the working theory from Jaguars defensive tackle Sen'Derrick Marks, who believes that the NFL is only hiring Thomas to earn some goodwill from fans and some free publicity. Marks compared the hiring of Thomas to Michael Sam being taken in the seventh round of the 2014 NFL Draft. "It's just like the Michael Sam situation -- if he wasn't gay, he would have gone undrafted," Marks told TMZ.com. "Instead, the league drafts him because I think they are trying to monopolize every aspect of the world... the same thing with a female ref. For the league, it's great publicity. The NFL is all about monopolizing every opportunity."The NFL definitely monopolized on Sam being drafted. Although Sam never played in a game for the Rams, his jersey was the NFL's sixth-best seller between May and July 2014. Now, before you bash Marks about his Thomas comments, he's not saying she can't do a good job, he's just saying that the NFL leaves no stone unturned when it comes to going after any "opportunity" where the league thinks it can garner some good publicity.As for Thomas herself, Marks is actually hoping things work out for her. "For women, it's great," Marks said. "Ain't nothing wrong with it, especially as long as she knows what she's doing.... I hope it works for her."Anyway, if anyone does end up getting offended by Marks' comments, it will likely be Sam.Marks clearly doesn't think Sam has the talent to play in the NFL and we know he thinks that because he said that if Sam "wasn't gay, he would have gone undrafted," meaning that Marks obviously believes that Sam was only drafted because he's gay. Sam was the 249th player taken out of 256 overall picks. Marks doesn't seem to think that Sam has the talent to play in the NFL and as of right now, Sam isn't on an NFL roster, which means all 32 teams seem to agree with Marks.
