Texas sportscaster, Dale Hansen, deviated from his script to deliver a remarkable speech about Michael Sam, the college football star who came out earlier this week.

Hansen, a sports anchor on Dallas station WFAA, urged fans to accept and support Sam. He points out that many well respected football players get away with heinous behaviour, yet are still revered for their performance on the field.

He said, “You beat a woman and drag her down a flight of stairs, pulling her hair out by the roots, you’re the fourth guy taken in the NFL draft.

“You love another man, now you’ve gone too far. It wasn’t that long ago when we were being told that black players couldn’t play in our games, because it would be uncomfortable, and even when they finally could, it took several years before a black man played quarterback, because we weren’t comfortable with that either … I’m not always comfortable when a man tells me he is gay, I don’t understand his world, but I do understand that he is part of mine.”

Watch this amazing speech below.