so where's the duck style outraeg?

[BlaqueKatt]

yup, Chris Kluwe of the minnesota vikings FIRED, not just suspended for a week, over his comments supporting LGBT equality, WITH the support of the team owner. Shouldn't those that were screaming like banshees over Phil be all over this "free speech" issue? *crickets*, oh right, hypocrisy, carry on.

Article is in his own words, detailing the INCREASE in homophobia from his coach and others after he spoke out. He is an excellent writer and I'm quite looking forward to hearing him as the keynote speaker for AACON14(he was secured as such before being fired, for his outspokenness).

I Was An NFL Player Until I Was Fired By Two Cowards And A Bigot

[lordlundar]

It's because the bigot still has his job, that's why.

[Gravekeeper]

yup, Chris Kluwe of the minnesota vikings FIRED, not just suspended for a week, over his comments supporting LGBT equality, WITH the support of the team owner.

While this whole thing is pretty farked up, the article doesn't quite support your thesis according to Kluwe. Additionally, the team owner is the one that thanked him for his support of gay marriage equality.

But therein lays the problem. They used legitimate means and reasons to release him from the team, even if they were motivated by homophobia. So unless anyone else on the team or staff has the balls to come forward as a witness this is stuck as his word against the coach's.

[BlaqueKatt]

While this whole thing is pretty farked up, the article doesn't quite support your thesis according to Kluwe. Additionally, the team owner is the one that thanked him for his support of gay marriage equality.

probably sentence structure(should've used a semicolon rather than comma), The meaning was-He had the owner's support, but was fired anyway.

and the coach has used the classic "I can't be homophobic, some of my family are gay" (the coach was just fired as well). And the vikings are investigating Kluwe's allegations, including that his performance numbers were not dropping.

[crashhelmet]

I just read this article yesterday by Tina Dupuy which touches on the same thing

OK, GOP, Defend Speech You Don’t Agree With

From the article:

In 2010, Sarah Palin called for President Obama’s then chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, to be fired because he privately used the word “retarded.” Palin was so offended by the word “retard” she equated it to the “N-word” (then later passionately defended the use of the “N-word” when Dr. Laura was the one slinging it across the airwaves). Palin cited her child with Down Syndrome as the reason Rahm should lose his job for his potty mouth. She wrote on Facebook: “I would ask the president to show decency in this process by eliminating one member of that inner circle, Mr. Rahm Emanuel, and not allow Rahm’s continued indecent tactics to cloud efforts.”

[Gravekeeper]

and the coach has used the classic "I can't be homophobic, some of my family are gay" (the coach was just fired as well). And the vikings are investigating Kluwe's allegations, including that his performance numbers were not dropping.

Yeah, I saw that. "Some of my best friends are-" may as well be shorthand for "I'm totally a bigot/racist" at this point. >.>

Even if his performance numbers had not been fudged, the team saved 1.2 million a year on salary by replacing him with a younger punter with a similar average. So again the biggest problem with this shit sandwich is they used legitimate avenues even if they had illegitimate motivations.

Still, if Kluwe's allegations are false, the coach would be have immediate cause to sue him for defamation. But he has not done so nor threatened to do so thus far.

[wolfie]

Crashhelmet, I wonder what Sarah Palin's reaction would be if she found out that the term "retarded" was commonly used by the "air-to-mud" community in the Air Force, and "cripple" was commonly used by framing carpenters?

Of course, neither group would have been intending any offense - the Mk.82 "snakeye" is a 500 pound bomb designed to be dropped at low altitude, and has a device attached (known as a "retarder") to slow it down after it's been dropped, so that the plane involved isn't in the blast's danger zone. Similarly, a "cripple" is a stud that's shorter than full length, used above a door or window opening (or below a window opening).

[crashhelmet]

Wolfie, in music "Retard" (spelled ritard, because it's Italian) means to slow down too. In fact, it's where the term gets its name from.

Who knows how many music teachers would be fired for what the ignorant bystander would think were insults at their students?

[HYHYBT]

The trouble with using this as a parallel to the Duck thing is that, in this case, there's the out of saying it was for other reasons. If you don't want to condemn the firing, you can just say you believe that version. The Rose Parade float thing makes a better parallel, because in both cases the relevant facts are known and it's the same side (rather than anyone's employer, otherwise uninvolved on the whole gay thing) arguing in the one case that taking him off the air would be a free speech violation and in the other case insisting it not be shown.

[TheHuckster]

Crashhelmet, I wonder what Sarah Palin's reaction would be if she found out that the term "retarded" was commonly used by the "air-to-mud" community in the Air Force, and "cripple" was commonly used by framing carpenters?

I'm not sure what your intending to say here, but although I think Sarah Palin is a hypocrite (she has blasted the media for criticizing people for the words they say from the right), I agree that "retard" is a derogatory term that really shouldn't be used as an insult to others. Just because it's okay to use it in other contexts doesn't make it right to use it as an insult at the expense of people with mental disabilities.

[Titi]

He can try to spin it around, but he is being replaced because he was a crappy punter. He punted a ball that went straight up and came back down into the hands of the other team. The ONLY reason he wasn't cut during the season was due to a lack of punters in the NFL.

[Hyena Dandy]

My view of this story is basically "Probably was a factor, would have happened anyway." Chris Kluwe is a very outspoken personality on pretty much everything, and a lot of owners, especially old-school type of guys, don't like that from anyone. But they REALLY don't like that from a punter. I can imagine his "He was bringing too much attention to himself" not being code for "He supported gay people" the way that it was for Ayanbadejo (and, some would argue, was a part of Barwin exiting Houston stage left) Additionally, I've seen how the Viking's management has tended to treat players. It has a basic idea of "This is what we want our football team to look like" and ignores the reality of what they have. They want an all-star, pocket-passing, charismatic quarterback. So Christian Ponder features heavily in advertising and is coached to stop trying to scramble when he's in trouble, even though he's an, at-best, below-average quarterback. They do, however, have Adrian Peterson, who doesn't get as many runs as he should, despite being the best running back in the NFL, and rarely features in advertising.

They want a team that looks a certain way, and it's based on a certain philosophy which would say that a punter's not a real football player, and is barely worth the cost of his own uniform. I think Kluwe would have been cut anyway.

However, I do think that it still had a part. I think that he probably would have had a better chance at not being cut if he wasn't as vocally for gay rights. The impression I've gotten from Chris Kluwe is that he is not a man who suffers fools lightly. He is also not a man to censor himself or his opinions for anybody. He would have really needed the special teams coach to be behind him 110% to keep on the Viking's roster, and I can definitely imagine the gay rights thing being what pushed him from "Alright, he is one of the most consistent players we have" to "No, cut this guy."

I think Kluwe wouldn't have stayed on, considering the football culture the Viking's management have is that a punter, even the best in the NFL, probably wouldn't be worth a million a year when you could just have some rookie from bumfuck nowhere. However, I also believe him when he says his special teams coach was a bigot.

Edit: What I do approve of, a lot, in this article is his casual mention of teammates supporting him and thinking what the coach said was fucked up. I find it heartening that while there's one guy who was speaking out, he wasn't totally ostracized in the locker room. That I think is a good, positive sgn.

[Rageaholic]

It's simple, it's not someone who shares their views so who cares about them?

One thing I noticed about these far right bigots is that they can dish it out, but they can't take it. They'll criticize the "liberals" (which is anyone who disagrees with them) for being too sensitive, too weak, ect. But they'll go apeshit when someone dares criticize someone on the Christian right.

[Gravekeeper]

One thing I noticed about these far right bigots is that they can dish it out, but they can't take it. They'll criticize the "liberals" (which is anyone who disagrees with them) for being too sensitive, too weak, ect. But they'll go apeshit when someone dares criticize someone on the Christian right.

Obligatory:

[protege]

But they'll go apeshit when someone dares criticize someone on the Christian right.

Even more amusing, is they'll rail about how the Muslims are "trying to implement sharia law in the US." Yet, they have no problem ranting and raving about how God should be in schools, the US is a "Christian nation," etc, etc, etc. Hypocritical, much?