Michael Sam has made his professional football debut

After leaving the Montreal Alouettes’ training camp and sitting out the team’s first five matches, American football star Michael Sam made his professional football debut in the Canadian Football League yesterday night.

Michael Sam becomes 1st openly gay man to play in CFL regular season game http://t.co/d6OrqUrXvV pic.twitter.com/fopThXOAke

— CBC Montreal (@CBCMontreal) August 8, 2015

Oh, hey, Michael Sam is playing. pic.twitter.com/6AcLsidpN8

— Chris Burke (@ChrisBurkeNFL) August 7, 2015

Sam, 25, was the first openly gay player to be drafted by an NFL team, but was cut by the St. Louis Rams before the regular season commenced. He signed a two-year deal with the Alouettes this summer and has now become the first openly gay player in the history of the CFL.

https://twitter.com/CTVDarrell/status/629803880621060096/

Fox Sports reported Sam as saying, “I’m not going to lie, there were some big jitters out there and I was nervous when I first got on the field. I didn’t get any opportunities to make many plays. I had some good pass rushes, I thought, but close enough is not a sack.”

Sam played sparingly and the Alouettes lost yesterday’s match to the Ottawa Redblacks, but hopefully he’ll get more opportunities to bring his A-game to the pitch.

Congratulations, Michael!