Jim Popp will not give up on Michael Sam. The vice-president of the Canadian Football League’s Montreal Alouettes keeps in daily contact with the sport’s first openly gay player and his agents, believing their words are a confirmation that Sam has not quit the game.

“I think he will be back,” Popp told the Guardian. “I’ll be surprised if he is not back. He wants to play. I will be very surprised if he is not back.”

Sam left the Alouettes on June 12, about two and a half weeks into the team’s training camp, to tend to a personal matter. Montreal opens their season on Thursday night and Popp had hoped Sam would have returned by now, but he said he also understands the pressure Sam is under and feels the player needs time away.

Sitting in the lobby of a local hotel, Popp spoke at length about his admiration for Sam, his belief that Sam can be a great pass rusher in professional football, and indicated that several NFL teams remain interested in the defensive end.

Popp also revealed that he came very close to signing Sam and Tim Tebow last fall, in moves that would have placed two of the world’s most talked-about athletes on the same roster.

Popp believes Sam is tired. After more than a year of being the somewhat reluctant face of gay athletes, making international headlines, being besieged for photos and interviews, getting a tepid welcome from the NFL and being cut twice, Sam has endured more than he ever expected. Everything became too much and he simply had to get away.

“I think he needed a break,” Popp said. “That’s my personal belief. I think it was just overwhelming to some degree, and he needs to clear his mind, clear his head. Do I think he wants to play? Do I think he wants to be on the field? Do I think he wants to be Michael Sam the football player? I, 100%, believe that. Yes.”

He suspects Sam was unaware of how much attention the announcement of his sexuality would create. Since Sam had in 2013 revealed to his college teammates at Missouri that he was gay – it was an open secret on campus – Popp wonders if Sam expected a similarly mild response, and was stunned when the reaction turned out to be much bigger.

“I don’t think he thought of it [as groundbreaking] when he came out,” Popp said. “When he does actually say it – you have to remember this – he’s already established, he’s the leader of the team, the star defensive player, and everybody’s already his buddies and friends and they already knew a lot of [it]. So everything was great. Now when you’re starting a pro career and that story is out, now you’re every other rookie that comes in to a professional camp.

“It’s not easy, it’s a tough go to try and break through. There’s a limited percentage of people in the world who ever get that job, and it’s just tough. I’m sure that with the additional pressure of being the first openly gay player and all the attention that comes with that, it’s even tougher.”

Michael Sam at training camp with the Alouettes. Photograph: Christinne Muschi/Reuters

Popp said the Alouettes’ scouting staff had targeted Sam even before he came out, seeing him as the ideal CFL prospect – a strong, aggressive player, too small at 6ft 2in, 261lbs to fit the prototype of an NFL defensive end, and too slow to be an outside linebacker in the eyes of NFL teams. But Popp loved the ferociousness with which Sam played, relentlessly pursuing quarterbacks, and believed that if given the right opportunity he could be a dominant player in professional football.

Early in 2014, Popp added Sam’s name to the list of players whose CFL rights Montreal owns, pulling it back off when he thought Sam would get drafted. He placed Sam’s name back on the list when the player failed to be chosen on the first two days of the three-day NFL draft, figuring it would be easier to sign a player picked in the later rounds.

“We projected him to be a guy who could be a good pass rusher in our league,” Popp said.

The Alouettes’ defensive coaches like their defensive ends to play in a two-point stance, meaning they stand up in a crouch before the ball is snapped – a technique that allows the pass rusher to have a wide view of the field, but does not allow the player a fast first step. Sam played best at Missouri in a three-point stance, bent slightly over, with one hand planted on the ground, giving him more explosiveness.

Popp, who believes Sam is much better in the three-point stance, said he told Sam to use the three-point stance, but that the player refused, saying he wanted to try the technique being taught by the coaches.

“He got better and better and better with it, too,” Popp said.

Looking back, Popp doesn’t believe Sam had the best shot at the NFL. While St Louis Rams coach Jeff Fisher liked Sam enough to take him in the seventh round of the 2014 NFL Draft, it probably wasn’t the ideal starting spot. The Rams had too many draft picks and too many talented defensive linemen for Sam to break through. A later run on the Dallas Cowboys practice squad didn’t allow him enough time to show his skills.

He isn’t sure why more NFL teams didn’t show interest in Sam, but wondered if NFL coaches and general mangers were afraid that Sam’s presence would cause a distraction around the team – a concept he finds laughable.

“I do think there are still teams in this day that still have an interest in him, and they are hoping he does play in the CFL and he does well, because they want to take a chance on him for their team – or see him do certain things for their team,” he said.

Popp added that several NFL teams have called him since Sam went home, asking if he knows why Sam left and when he will be back.

“They wouldn’t be calling if they weren’t interested,” he said. “They were monitoring him to see how he did here. There’s a lot of people who want to see Michael Sam play, and they are going to tune in to see him play.”

Sam came very close to playing for Montreal last year, Popp said. After several phone calls to Sam’s agents, he felt Sam was close to committing to Montreal. Then, late in the fall, the agents told him that Sam wanted to “hold off” on signing. Popp suspects some NFL teams were dropping suggestions that they might add him late in the season, or after the year when they add a number of players to their post-season rosters.

Popp was perhaps even closer to signing Tebow, the former Florida star and Heisman Trophy winner whose NFL career had stalled after leading the Denver Broncos to the playoffs in 2011. Last August he met with Tebow at an undisclosed location in the US with the intention of bringing him to the Alouettes. He said Tebow had packed his bags for Montreal and brought the luggage with him, which Popp took as a sign Tebow would come to Montreal.

Tim Tebow in his Florida State days in 2009. Photograph: Phil Sandlin/AP

But Tebow was close to taking a job with ESPN as an SEC football analyst and the near-agreement soon dissolved. This past winter, Tebow signed with the Philadelphia Eagles.

“He’s doing the one thing he’s always wanted to do,” Popp said of Tebow’s desire to be an NFL quarterback.

If both Tebow and Sam had signed last season, the Alouettes would have had two of the most intriguing, sensation-causing players in the same locker room: Sam for his sexuality, Tebow for his expressions of faith – and both for being underdogs, ignored by the NFL. In a sport where most coaches and executives hate distractions, some may have seen Sam and Tebow together as the ultimate distraction.

But Popp just shrugged as he considered the possibility. He’s 50 now, and has been running the Alouettes since 1996. The team has won eight Grey Cups since he came to Montreal. He doesn’t see distractions, only opportunity.

Popp is close to a relative who is gay. This probably makes him more determined to see Sam succeed. He was furious over a recent report that said Sam left the team because he believed he wasn’t good enough to make it. Sam had been doing well, Popp said. He also believes Sam might be better during games than in practice.

Soon, he hopes Sam returns. He won’t reveal the personal matter that Sam is dealing with, but said that he knows what it is and that the issue is significant. He wants to see Sam come back, to be the relentless pass rusher he believes Sam can become, but mostly he wants Sam to succeed because that would be a good thing for football.

“He wants to be one of the guys, one of the football layers who go out and do what they do,” he said. “At the end of the day, he is going to have that badge of the so-called first. But he is Michael Sam the football player, not Michael Sam the gay football player, and hopefully that helps a lot of other athletes be able to stand up and say who they are, so they can feel they can be themselves.”