No one’s professional life should be derailed by who they are as an individual. That’s what makes Michael Sam’s announcement so groundbreaking.

Sam, an All-American defensive lineman who was the centerpiece of last year’s 12-win University of Missouri squad, announced on Sunday that he is gay.

Sam is entered in the NFL Draft, and when he is selected — which he should be in the first four rounds — he will become the NFL’s first openly gay player.

“(I hope) that they see not just a gay athlete, but they can see an athlete who knows how to play the game,” Sam said to ESPN’s Chris Connelly. “I know how to play this game, Chris.”

The defensive end was the SEC’s Co-Defensive Player of the Year last season, earning 11.5 sacks and 19 tackles for a loss for a Missouri team that made a seven-win improvement from 2012 to 2013.

Sam’s announcement via ESPN’s SportsCenter comes nine months after NBA free agent Jason Collins announced that he was gay. Collins laid groundwork in mainstream American sports because of who he was — an established 7-foot NBA center.

The two athletes have parallels. Each player went public with his sexuality through the media. Both players also came out while not on a roster. But Collins was on the tail-end of a 12-year career. Sam is just entering his, one that can be a long, prosperous career or a short stint in the NFL if he never establishes himself on the football field.

How that career unfolds should have nothing to do with Sam’s announcement on Sunday.

NFL general managers have anonymously told various media outlets that Sam’s announcement will hurt his future draft stock because their team’s locker room will not be receptive of an openly gay man.

To be an executive or a scout in the NFL is to make subjective decisions every single day. General managers make decisions about players and coaches for a variety of reasons — age, weight, passion, athletic ability and those who hurt the locker room, like Richie Incognito and his alleged bullying incident with the Miami Dolphins.

­Let Sam fizzle in the NFL because of his 6-foot-2-inch height or because he is not fast enough to play at the next level, as scouts have already remarked. Let Sam struggle to make a franchise because his production last season at Missouri was a one-season anomaly. Those subjective reasons are perfectly acceptable to let a player go.

Let Sam’s ability to play football at the professional level be separate from his personal life.

It should not be because of or related to the fact that he is gay. Honesty must hold true for all involved.

He is braver than I can ever dream to be. He is extremely comfortable with himself and with this announcement. He has opened the doors to a different behind-the-scenes landscape of football, college or professional, for the foreseeable future.

Most importantly, Sam is a trailblazer for a number of kids who now have a model of bravery in the public eye of athletics.

Let’s hope by the end of this year that Sam is not the only role model for those who are having an inner debate about whether or not to make their sexual preferences known to the public, on either a small or large scale.

And let’s hope a team — its players, coaches and executives — gives Sam every opportunity to flourish in the NFL, no matter who he is.