It's unfortunate that it's the case...but yeah, in general, the distraction is less with most of those and/or far more valuable football/business wise. Take that as a sign of condemnation upon our media, society, or football...but it's the reality.
Let's go through.
The first person (not pictured) would be Donte Stallworth. This is a situation where really the blame lies more so the public and the media if you want to place blame somewhere. I lived in one of the cities that Dante Stallworth played post his Manslaughter conviction. There was little, if any, media attentiong really given to him being on the team. There wasn't much, if any, distraction there because people just didn't seem to either 1) know or 2) care.
Ray Lewis after 1999 was a 1st round pick, coming off of 3 pro bowl appearances and 3 all pro-selections and was quickly being regarded as one of, if not the, best defensive player in football. The murder allegations were absolutely a distraction (go look at stories put out about their super bowl that year and trying to avoid questions from the media about it), but in this case there was a reasonable argument to the Ravens that the risk of distraction was worth the reward of an all-pro player. Mind you, this was also at a time where media coverage of the NFL and news in general was FAR less constant than it is today.
Roethlisburger is another situation where the team, rightly or wrongly, saw that the reward was worth the risk of a distraction. You're talking about a former 1st round pick, rookie of the year, pro-bowler, two time super bowl champion QB who was the fase of their franchise. Again, a team is likely to risk more regarding distractions if you have a history of those results. Ultimately, the controversy surrounding it cost Roethlisberger 4 games.
With Riley Cooper you basically have a perfect example of how this works. When it first broke that this happened talk of being suspended from the team and other things came out as it was a major news story with people asking questions and focus being shed on it. Shockingly, once things died down he pretty much reentered the team. The controversy was largely short lived. By the time of opening day...and trust me I was paying attention to the Eagles by then...it was barely a topic.
As to Mike Vick, I've already spoken to him. The guy had the athetlic and skill to be a near MVP candidate, but the best he could do was get on as a 3rd string QB behind a long established starter and a promising young drafted QB on one of the most stable teams in all the league because of all the media baggage that came along with him.
Am I saying it's right? No. But John Stewart kind of kills his own point.
Go back in the Daily Show archieve....how many segments did John Stewart do about Dante Stallworth's DUI killing? Heck, how many did he devote to Riley Cooper? Or even Ben Roethlisberger?
And how many has he focused already on Michael Sam?
Ask yourself, and be honest...
Is Michael Sam going to get more media coverage over the next year than Riley Cooper did? Is he going to get more coverage than Donte Stallworth did? Or even than Ben Roethlisberger did?
If the answer is "yes"...then the comparisons fall flat as anything other than a condemnation towards the public or the media as to what they spend time focusing on.
If anything, Stewart's suggestion actually backs up the notion that this is about the distraction rather than the gayness.
Unless you're suggesting the NFL somehow approves of drunkedly killing people? Or that they approve of drug fighting and gambling rings? Or that they approve of rape? I think it's reasonable to suggest that the NFL and most teams don't actually approve of those things...but yet those people still got a job.
On the flip side, I'm pretty sure the NFL and most teams don't have any issue with an outspoken christian. And yet, Tim Tebow can't sniff a job.
The reality is, right or wrong, our media and our public is going to mindlessly pound the drums of this story till kingdom come because it transcends politicsl into social and political issues. That's not the case with a guy getting drunk and running down a pedestrian. And as such, there's going to be a lot more media distractions for the former than there is for the latter. And when it comes down to football decisions, that makes it a bigger negative.
Now, as I said above...all things are a notion of risk and reward. The risk of the distractions associated with Sam may make drafting him in the 2nd or 3rd round a poor gamble for some teams...but the reward of getting him in the 5th may make it worth while. For others it may take him off the board entirely. But I definitely think there's enough talent there that a team is defintiely going to take a gamble on him...it'll just be someone like New England, San Francisco, Baltimore, etc. Somewhere that has a pretty established and solid organizational structure in place.