Defensive End Michael Sam runs through a drill during the NFL Veteran Combine.Rick Scuteri/The Associated Press
There have been others before him.
Jackie Robinson played for the Montreal Royals before breaking the Major League Baseball colour barrier in Brooklyn; David Testo was a member of the Montreal Impact in 2011 when he publicly declared he was gay, the first North American pro soccer player to do so.
So when newly signed Montreal Alouettes' defensive end Michael Sam alights in Montreal next week – it will be the Texan's first trip to Canada – he won't be the first pro athlete to break previously untilled social ground.
But it can't just be a happy accident that he has ended up here.
Sam drew the notice of football fans in the NCAA's Southeastern Conference for his ability to sack quarterbacks while at the University of Missouri; he reached international renown in 2014 as the first openly gay athlete to be drafted into the NFL.
After being cut by the St. Louis Rams despite a promising showing in the exhibition season and a stint on the Dallas Cowboys' practice roster his football journey takes him to Canada and the Als, who began their efforts to tempt the 6-foot-2, 260-pound defensive end north about a year ago.
Is it a football move by the Als, who can use another high-grade pass rusher? Absolutely.
That doesn't mean it can't be more.
The social context in Montreal – which can be generalized as: do your own thing – is inevitably going to be linked with Sam's decision.
It's not as though sports fans in the city are unaccustomed to athletes who break taboos (one could add former Montreal Canadien Stéphane Richer and multiple Olympic medalist Clara Hughes for their mental-health advocacy).
"Montreal is a trailblazing city, and it's a great place for him to hopefully play his first regular-season game as a professional," Als general-manager Jim Popp said. "For me personally, I'm about helping to educate … if there are people out there who have issues for whatever reason – well, it's about education and acceptance of people in society for who they are. That said, he's a professional football player same as everybody in our locker room, nothing different."
There's a time not that long ago that some in the Als' inner sanctum may have harboured a not-very-latent animosity toward Sam.
Long-time CFL veteran Arland Bruce was reprimanded and fined for homophobic comments on social media after Sam's public coming-out ahead of the 2014 NFL draft; Winnipeg's Bryant Turner was also fined for remarks about Sam. Both players apologized.
Bruce's statements were strongly condemned by the Als, and he was released weeks later.
It's fair to say they weren't representative of the league as a whole.
The CFL has a partnership with You Can Play, which advocates for inclusion on behalf of gay athletes; several high-profile players, such as Calgary Stampeders running back Jon Cornish, a former most-outstanding player, are staunch advocates for gay rights.
On Friday, CFL commissioner Jeffrey Orridge hailed Sam's signing and highlighted his league is "open and progressive."
Sam's journey should be made easier by the fact there are eminently reasonable football reasons to sign him to a two-year deal.
Size-wise, he is too small by the standards of big-time NFL quarterback-crunchers, and not speedy or athletic enough to be an outside linebacker who will be called upon to cover receivers.
"On paper this is a great fit, because he's a classic tweener," Popp said.
The veteran CFL executive, who knows the NFL intimately to the point where he has been considered for front-office jobs in his native United States, said the question of "fit" is paramount.
Take the example of Miami Dolphins lineman Cameron Wake, who was also considered too small for the NFL and revealed himself as a natural in the job with the B.C. Lions, who saw something the football minds south of the border hadn't (although for every Wake there are dozens of others who don't work out).
"The NFL is based off measurables, and when you're picking from the best of the best that's how it has to work," Popp said.
That means a defensive end in a 4-3 alignment should be 6-foot-5 and 280 pounds in order to shift the biggest and most accomplished offensive linemen in the world. And in a 3-4, the outside linebacker who weighs 250 pounds better have the foot speed and ball skills to cover slot receivers and running backs one-on-one.
In the CFL, with its extra player and more defensive backs, specialist linemen can hone their craft.
"We can concentrate on a guy's skill set and say 'you're going to rush the passer,'" Popp said.
And that's what Sam will be asked to do.
He will arrive in Montreal next Tuesday and will shortly appear in training camp in hopes of joining an Alouettes defence that had some success pressuring opposition quarterbacks last season (they were third in the league in sacks), but faltered in the playoffs.
Sam recorded 21 sacks in his collegiate career – he was an SEC all-star and the conference's defensive player of the year in his senior season (previous winners include NFL first-rounders Jarvis Jones, Patrick Peterson and Patrick Willis. Sam was the only one in the past 10 years to slide past the 33rd pick of the NFL draft).
The Rams picked him in the seventh-round in 2014. He was cut after playing the exhibition season and caught on with the Cowboys' practice squad.
He participated in this spring's NFL veterans' combine and was most recently a contestant on Dancing with the Stars. It was only after he fulfilled his contractual obligations with the show that he was free to sign with Montreal.
"He's an outstanding football player. That's the only reason we signed him. That's it," Popp said.
Though nothing is guaranteed for Sam, he could find a worse destination.
If it all goes well, it might even be a springboard back to the NFL.