In the less than 48 hours since Michael Sam was drafted to the St. Louis Rams Saturday night, sales of his jersey have already soared to No. 2 out of all of the NFL rookies drafted, OutSports reported.
"This is unprecedented for a Day 3 pick, let alone a seventh round pick, to crack the top five rookies sold following Draft weekend," NFL spokesperson Joanna Hunter told the publication. In other words, the jersey sales are significant because Sam's became available 48 hours later than those of the other four players in the top five best-sellers.
As of Monday morning, sales of Sam's jersey ranked second behind Johnny Manziel of the Cleveland Browns — who was drafted in the first round — and ahead of three other players drafted far ahead of him: Jadeveon Clowney of the Houston Texans, Teddy Bridgewater of the Minnesota Vikings, and Blake Bortles of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Just hours after Sam's selection, it was reported that the NFL was scrambling to fulfill a "ridiculous" quantity of request for Sam's jersey.
A message was left with the NFL seeking additional details.
When reached by BuzzFeed, NFL Corporate Communications Director Joanna Hunter would not say exactly how many of Sam's jerseys have been sold, but reiterated the impressive sales ranking.
Neither Johnny Manziel nor Teddy Bridgewater was among the first five NFL draft picks; an earlier version of this item gave them a bit too much credit.