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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsChris Kluwe: "I Was Fired By Two Cowards & A Bigot"
[link:http://deadspin.com/i-was-an-nfl-player-until-i-was-fired-by-two-cowards-an-1493208214|
Hello. My name is Chris Kluwe, and for eight years I was the punter for the Minnesota Vikings. In May 2013, the Vikings released me from the team. At the time, quite a few people asked me if I thought it was because of my recent activism for same-sex marriage rights, and I was very careful in how I answered the question. My answer, verbatim, was always, "I honestly don't know, because I'm not in those meetings with the coaches and administrative people."
This is a true answer. I honestly don't know if my activism was the reason I got fired.
However, I'm pretty confident it was.
Allow myself to tell you a story about ... myself. The following is a record of what happened to me during my 2012 season with the Minnesota Vikings, written down immediately after the 2013 draft in April, when I realized what was happening, and revised recently only for clarity. I tried to keep things as objective as possible, and anything you see in quotes are words that I directly recall being said to me.
This is a story about how actions have consequences, no matter how just or moral you think your cause happens to be, and it's a story about the price people all too often pay for speaking out.
Today, April 30, 2013, I am writing an account of events that transpired during my time with the Minnesota Vikings during the 2012 NFL season and leading into the 2013 season (so I don't forget them in case it is necessary to recall what happened).
During the summer of 2012, I was approached by a group called Minnesotans for Marriage Equality, which asked if I would be interested in helping defeat what was known as the Minnesota Gay Marriage Amendment. The proposed amendment would have defined marriage as "only a union of one man and one woman." (It was voted down, and same-sex marriage is now legal in Minnesota.) I said yes, but that I would have to clear it with the team first. After talking to the Vikings legal department, I was given the go-ahead to speak on the issue as long as I made it clear I was acting as a private citizen, not as a spokesman for the Vikings, which I felt was fair and complied with. I did several radio advertisements and a dinner appearance for Minnesotans for Marriage Equality. No one from the Vikings' legal department told me I was doing anything wrong or that I had to stop.
On Sept. 7, 2012, this website published a letter I had written to Maryland delegate Emmett C. Burns Jr. chastising him for trampling the free-speech rights of Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo. The letter also detailed why I supported the rights of same-sex couples to get married. It quickly went viral.
http://deadspin.com/i-was-an-nfl-player-until-i-was-fired-by-two-cowards-an-1493208214
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)but you should edit the post down to 4 paragraphs, and include a link to the source material.
Sid
Bigredhunk
(1,351 posts)I included the link, but it didn't show. I edited the post as per your instructions.
Electric Monk
(13,869 posts)Bigredhunk
(1,351 posts)I did a search for "Chris Kluwe" and it was all stuff from 2012.
My bad.
progressoid
(50,000 posts)A little extra exposure never hurts.
shenmue
(38,506 posts)It looks great.
Botany
(70,610 posts).... it happens all the time in the NFL.
dsc
(52,169 posts)I have my doubts that all the time people have coaches directly ask players to not speak about issues in public, change their evaluations, and say gays should be nuked.
Botany
(70,610 posts)The average time in the NFL for an average player is very short .... something like 3 years
and then the team releases that player and gets a younger player for much less money
and that player can do almost the same things as the more senior player for a fraction of the
cost. No doubt that Mr. K.'s speaking out hurt him but the salary cap in the league is what
got him in the end.
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/question644.htm
mojowork_n
(2,354 posts)......"specialists," i.e. kickers and punters and even long snappers and really good special teams players (Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo comes to mind) have a different salary scale. They can continue to draw a paycheck into their 40's if they're really good. Ayanbeadejo, for instance, was a 3-time special teams Pro Bowl player, twice voted All-Pro special teams. Other non-kicking special team players (Steve Tasker? He was 5 foot 9 and weighed all of 183 pounds, couldn't do much as a wide receiver but may someday be elected to the Hall of Fame for his work as a gunner on special teams) transcend the guidelines by which players are kept on the roster.
Ayanbadejo wrote the original commentary on advocating for gay acceptance, which prompted the Maryland state legislator, Emmit Burns, to write to the Baltimore Ravens owner urging him to ""take the necessary action ... to inhibit such expressions from your employee."
Which prompted Kluwe to write his letter.
Neither Ayanbadejo nor Kluwe made a roster this year.
Go figure.
Oakenshield
(614 posts)Thanks for sharing.