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If it seemed Michael Sam was defiant and abrupt — talking to the media on Monday for three minutes, maximum, before he politely excused himself and hopped into a waiting van — at least Tom Higgins put things into perspective.

“I know it’s a sore point and he left in a little bit of a huff, but he doesn’t want to be standing here until he does something. He feels he hasn’t done anything that warrants him being here,” the Alouettes’ head coach told a media throng — many of whom hardly make covering the team a daily occurrence — following the first workout of the week at Stade Hebert.

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The flowers of journalism came out to see Sam, the rookie rush-end who still hasn’t played so much as a down for the Canadian Football League team, because he remains a novelty act. If Sam was just some other schmo trying to make a team, nobody would care. But he’s the first openly-gay player drafted by an NFL team trying to crack a CFL club’s roster.

So it was big news when he signed with the Als — just as it was more than two weeks ago when he requested permission to leave, on the eve of Montreal’s first exhibition game, for personal reasons. The organization always left the door open for his return, an option he exercised during the weekend, when he reported Sunday morning for team meetings and film review.