After ESPN recently aired a report regarding Micheal Sam's relationship with his teammates in the locker room, St. Louis Rams head coach Jeff Fisher criticized the sports network for its coverage regarding the first openly gay NFL athlete.

"I'm extremely disappointed in her piece. I think it's unethical," said Fisher to the St. Louis Dispatch on August 27, "I think it's very, very unprofessional. Not only the piece itself, the content. The manner in which [ESPN reporter Josina Anderson] did it."

On Tuesday, Anderson reported that "[Sam] is waiting to kind of take a shower, as not to make his teammates feel uncomfortable."

The longtime NFL head coach (and former Chicago Bears player from 1981 to 1985) believes that Anderson created the story because there wasn't any major news coming out of the Rams preseason training camp.

"Obviously she came in, in all likelihood to see if there was gonna be a roster move at the 75 cutdown as it relates to Mike Sam. That didn't happen. But she needed to do something, and it's my understanding that she manufactured this story," said Fisher, "She was out of line because she went and contacted several players on their personal time. Misled them with questions and then put this piece together."

Sam's Rams teammate Chris Long (son of Hall of Fame NFL defensive end and TV analyst Howie Long) went on social media in order to echo his head coach's sentiments concerning the locker room controversy.

"Dear ESPN, Everyone but you is over it," wrote Long via Twitter on August 26.

After ESPN was criticized by numerous people regarding Anderson's coverage of Sam's bond with his colleagues, the network issued a statement about the matter. "ESPN regrets the manner in which we presented our report. Clearly yesterday we collectively failed to meet the standards we have set in reporting on LGBT-related topics in sports," said ESPN in a declaration on Wednesday.