Michael Sam rejoins CFL's Montreal Alouettes

Michael Sam has rejoined the Montreal Alouettes.

The first openly gay player to be drafted into the NFL, Sam signed with the Canadian Football League team recently in efforts to jumpstart his professional career. However Sam left the Alouettes earlier this month for undisclosed personal reasons.

Paste BN Sports learned Sam returned to the Alouettes on Tuesday. The team lost its opening game Thursday night to the Ottawa Redblacks.

"In our league, it's a lot of one-on-one pass rush opportunities," Calgary Stampeders assistant general manager John Murphy recently told Paste BN Sports. "He's in the prime of his career. That guy's coming up and playing against some guys who might have a little more tread on their tire."

Sam, a defensive end who was the SEC's co-defensive player of the year in 2013 for the Missouri Tigers, has not played in an NFL regular-season game. He was cut by the St. Louis Rams, who drafted him in the seventh round in 2014, in preseason last year and later spent time on the Dallas Cowboys practice squad.

Contributing: Paste BN Sports' Tom Pelissero