Willie "The Rat" Cammisano

By Lynda Warren, May 12, 2014, Dailymail.co.uk

Wiping away tears before sharing a passionate kiss for the cameras, new NFL pick Michael Sam and his boyfriend were the picture of joy on Saturday.

As the photograph of their embrace quickly spread across the internet, Sam celebrated being the first openly-gay player drafted to the NFL - and viewers wondered about the identity of his man.

He has now been named as Vito Cammisano, a 23-year-old fellow University of Missouri alum, who starred on the school's swim team - and who apparently comes from one of the state's most infamous mobster families.

Online records indicate that he is the grandson of William 'Willie Rat' Cammisano. The mob leader served time in prison for extortion and contempt of Congress in the 80s, AP reported.

After a long rap sheet of crimes from theft to bootlegging, accusations of murder, and refusing to cooperate with a Congressional probe into the mob, he passed away in 1995, aged 80.

After his death, his son, William 'Willie' Cammisano Jr., took over the reins but he was arrested in 2010 for running a $3.5 million illegal sports betting organization and sentenced to a year and a day in prison, according to a release from the Department of Justice.

His brother - Vito's father - Jerry Cammisano, was also swept up in the family business and served 14 months in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $200,000 for his part in leading the sports betting ring, according to the release.

Records show Jerry Cammisano began his sentence in February 2011, and photographs show him grinning beside Vito at his graduation ceremony last year, indicating he did not serve further time.