Tony Dungy clarified his comments about the openly gay linebacker Michael Sam being a distraction to the St. Louis Rams team, after getting bad rap from social media.

In his statement, he explained that Michael Sam is not a distraction to St. Louis Rams and he fully deserves to play in the NFL. He said that his earlier statements referred to the media coverage generated by Sam's efforts to make it to the team's opening day 53-man roster - all of which would have been part of his concerns if he were his coach.

Espn.go.com reported that Dungy's ill-received comments, which were published in Tampa Tribune last Sunday, prompted him to explain himself by releasing a statement on Tuesday whereby he said that he was only giving an honest answer to the questions about Sam.

According to Dungy, he made his comment about "Michael Sam being a distraction" to the newspaper several weeks back. He said it occurred at the time of the announcement of the Oprah Winfrey reality show's plan to document Sam's first season.

However, his claim regarding the timeline remains questionable. In "The Don Patrick Show" aired Tuesday, Ira Kaufman, the Tribune reporter, said that he interviewed Dungy one or two weeks ago. That aside, he added that the scheduled documentary of Sam's rookie season was put off until the middle of May, which took place long before he talked to Dungy.

Based on the report of indystar.com, Kevin Demoff, chief operating officer of the Rams, said that if anyone will take responsibility as the leader in drafting Sam, he would have to be ready to deal with all consequences, both good and bad.

The Star's Bob Kravitz, the reporter responsible for covering Dungy's former stint as the Colts coach, also took to Twitter to express his disappointment. In his tweet, he added that Tony Dungy's thoughts about Michael Sam being a distraction due to his sexuality did not come as a surprise to him.