A Wisconsin church has fired former NFL Hall Of Famer Leroy Butler for supposedly violating the “morals clause” of his contract by sending a tweet supporting Jason Collins for coming out as gay. Butler was scheduled to deliver a speech to the church and was to be paid $8500.
Butler refuses to name the church, proving who the real honorable party here is.
“Shortly after sending congratulations to Collins on Twitter, Butler got a call from officials at a church where he was scheduled to give an anti-bullying presentation this summer,” the Journal Sentinel reports:
Butler thought the call was to discuss event details. He said that he speaks to several churches every year, and that sponsors usually help the church raise money to cover his fee – in this case $8,500 – and in turn, donations are collected during the event to benefit the church.
Instead, Butler was told by church officials that they would cancel the presentation unless he removed the tweet, apologized and asked God’s forgiveness.
“This is what bothers me the most. They said, ‘If you ask for forgiveness and remove the tweet and you say something to the effect that you don’t congratulate (Collins) then we’ll let you do the engagement and get the speaker’s fee, and I said I’m not doing that,” Butler said Wednesday.
“Every gay and lesbian person will say ‘You know, LeRoy doesn’t speak up for the weak or the silenced. He doesn’t stand for anything as a man and he did it for money.’ Why would you ask me to reduce my integrity like that?” he continued.
He was so bothered by the exchange that he took to Twitter on Tuesday night to discuss it, where it was noticed by the National Football Post, which first reported the story.
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Hat-tip: DeadSpin