purl a classmate and the son of ron purl the president of the local branch of prosperity bankrons wife candy made sure their house was part recreation center and part counseling hub for their children and their friends by sams senior year he had his own bedroom in the purls house along with chores like cleaning the pool and carrying the grocery bagsi look at our house as a kind of safe haven said ron purl who keeps a photograph of sam in his missouri football uniform in his office he is just another son if he did something wrong he got yelled at just like the others didit was the purls who drove sam from texas to middle missouri it seemed like an improbable trip at the timei didnt even dream of going to college sam said college was not in my definition if somebody told me i was going to play for the missouri tigers in 2009 i would laugh at themcasual disclosuressam may have been big for hitchcock but he was small on missouris defensive line the coaches did not know what to make of their undersize freshmanimagecreditaugust kryger for the new york timeshe was a twostar recruit said pat ivey an associate athletic director who oversees the strength department i didnt really see him being an allamericanat first sams teammates intimidated him his affinity for harry potter books made him stand out he was noisy and could not sit still but he won the group over with improvised songs that ribbed teammates or described their grueling practiceshes got a motor that never stops defensive lineman derrion thomas said he is a big personality and when he started with the songs you just knew that mind never stoppedthe same went for his mouthhe drove me crazy coach gary pinkel said he never shut up i knew when he was in my office talking to the secretary id get up and shut the doorbefore his senior year sam had begun telling those closest to him who he really was he skipped the dramatic pronouncements in favor of casual disclosures in a phone call to a high school friend tyler sander sam confided that he was having romantic troubles if sander had been around more during the christmas break sam said you would have met himthere was a pause and i was like him sander saidhe was like yeah im gaysander and sam had a long conversation that night that made them even closer now theres nothing to hide sander said we can literally talk to each other about anythingtwo years ago during christmas break sam brought home a friend from the swimming team a man his second family the purls did not ask any questions when sam called ron purl later to say that he was gay purl assured him that he was perfectly fine with it and already knewhis teammates had similar reactionsi practiced across from him three years and it was just war said elvis fisher