Former Vikings Punter, Chris Kluwe has been somewhat vindicated, earlier this year he posted an article on Deadspin entitled ‘I was an NFL player until I was fired by two cowards and a bigot’, in it he stated that Special teams coach, Mike Priefer made derogatory comments about Kluwes out of team activities in relation to the promotion of marriage equality, more worryingly Kluwe alleged that the following was said to him by Priefer.
“We should round up all the gays, send them to an island, and then nuke it until it glows.” (Deadspin article)
In response, the Minnesota Vikings launched an internal investigation into the allegations made by the former punter, after 6 months and several outspoken remarks on the investigation by Kluwe, releasing this statement yesterday, along with an abridged report (it is still 29 pages long) I apologize for getting a bit quote heavy over the next few paragraphs.
There is support in the record through (Cullen) Loeffler that Priefer made the single homophobic statement to Kluwe…Loeffler said that Priefer made this statement after becoming frustrated that Loeffler and Kluwe were not focused on football during practice…There is no support in the record that Priefer made any additional statements of this nature. (Minnesota Vikings official statement)
So from this we can presume that at least some of the allegations made during the last season of Kluwe’s tenure as a Viking were true. Priefer when presented with Loeffler’s evidence admitted the ‘nuke’ comment but stated that it was a joke amongst three men.
So what reparations have the Vikings made?
Mike Priefer has been suspended for the first 3 games of the season and been ordered to take anti-harassment, diversity and sexual-orientation sensitivity training. If he completes this training the suspension can be reduced to two games. They will also donate $100,000 to LGBT rights charities and educational organisations. They have also issued apologies from Priefer and owners Mark and Zigi Wilf
I owe an apology to many people – the Wilf family, the Minnesota Vikings organization and fans, my family, the LGBT community, Chris Kluwe and anyone else that I offended with my insensitive remark. I regret what has occurred and what I said. I am extremely sorry but I will learn from this situation and will work on educating others to create more tolerance and respect.– Mike Priefer
The above is the full apology from Priefer.
We are very disappointed with some of the findings contained within the report. As we have said in the past, we consistently strive to create – and believe we have – a supportive, respectful and accepting environment for our players, coaches and staff, and we strongly disassociate the club from the statement that Coach Priefer made. Coach Priefer is a good man, and we know that he deeply regrets the comment. We do not believe that this error in judgment should define him. – Mark Wilf/Zygi Wilf (extract)
So what has Chris Kluwe said in response? Well, he isn’t happy, during negotiations before the summarised reports publication, Kluwe wanted the full report released, $1 Million donated to LGBT organisations and Priefer suspended for 6-8 games. Kluwe plans to file a wrongful dismissal lawsuit for $10 Million on Monday morning, he also stated that he plans to donate all the money in the action to LGBT causes.
This has been a bad stain on an otherwise improved public image in Minnesota, I can understand the organization wanting to control some of the contents of the report and it is something I will comment on later. I do think the suspension for Priefer is very lenient and should have been more, I deplore homophobic, sexist, bigoted comments, as should all of society. The NFL has to look at this and create an environment where the likes of Michael Sam, (the first openly gay player in the NFL) can feel accepted and not a pariah for their orientation.
This brings me to the more worrying issue in my eyes, the protection of whistle blowers, in the report it is stated that an affidavit was taken from Long snapper Cullen Loeffler, by Les Pico, Vikings Executive Director of Player Development/Legal, this was then made confidential by either Pico or Kluwe.
According to Kluwe, it did not appear that Pico was going to tell anyone else about what was discussed in the meeting out of concern that doing so would jeopardize Loeffler’s job with the Vikings… Pico said that Kluwe was adamant that Pico keep the entire conversation confidential and not disclose any part of it to anyone in the Vikings organization. (Minnesota Vikings official statement)
These few words are the important part to me “doing so would jeopardize Loeffler’s job with the Vikings.” The NFL is notoriously fickle when it comes to player loyalties and often a player has be seen and not heard, to make a statement against an organization is, to bit the hand that feeds you but such statements need to be made, without them things will not change and they will become institutionalized.
The NFL has had several issues over the last year in relation to institutionalized behavior, the bullying at Miami, these comments in Minnesota among them. Players need to feel that they can approach management about such issues, without putting their jobs and careers on the line. This is what the NFL needs to address as a whole, they need to support whistle blowers.
This story is not going to go away any time soon, I have seen some horrible comments aimed at Kluwe over social media from fans and Kluwe for his part has instituted a scorched earth policy, in relation to airing any dirty laundry he has on the Vikings. This has gotten truly ugly for everyone involved and no one is coming out looking like an angle.
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