ESPN's coverage of openly gay football player Michael Sam kissing his boyfriend has gained a lot of attention, mostly from the media praising the network's support of the display of affection. Anyone who opposed the act has been severely attacked and for one retired NFL player he has now been receiving death threats.

The St. Louis Rams chose Sam as the 249th overall choice in the 2014 NFL draft. Celebrating the news, Sam smashed cake on his boyfriends face and then planted a kiss on him twice. All of this was shown on ESPN. Soon after, retired NFL player Derrick Ward took to Twitter and shared his opinion.

"Man U got little kids lookin at the draft. I can't believe ESPN even allowed that to happen," he tweeted Saturday.

Immediately, he was attacked for his position, he then responded in a series of tweets Saturday.

"But for real though most of u need to read the bible. It'll explain a lot in that book," Ward wrote. "And for the last time since u guys don't know how to read I wasn't against him kissing his significant other. All I said was he shouldn't had done it the way that he did it. Even if he kissed a girl I woulda said the same thing."

Other NFL players chimed in and were penalized for it. Miami Dolphins player Don Jones tweeted "OMG" after the kiss and was fined. The former New York Giants running back did not get penalized, but said he has been getting death threats because of his comment.

"Gotta love America. Home of the greatest [----] talkers on earth. The past 24hrs I've been accused of being prejudice [and] a bigot. Had a few people say they wanted to kill me and my kids. I was the worst player in the NFL," he explained in another series of tweets Sunday.

Ward continued, "They hope I die. And my kids killed. All because I said I didn't think it was appropriate for someone to shove cake down another persons face then tongue them down on national TV. Not once saying anything about the persons sexual preference. But. That's America for u. All I can do is smile and say thank u for seeing things that aren't there!"

He then finalized his statements by saying, "I'll continue to speak my mind because it's my god given right and supposedly u can do it without being frowned upon here in America."

Should people share their opinions openly on social media without getting ruthlessly attacked? Leave your thoughts on the comment section below.