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NFL linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo agrees that former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe was fired for being pro-gay. Yesterday, in a scathing and lengthy op-ed, Kluwe said he believes his support for same-sex marriage and LGBT equality were the reasons he lost his job. Kluwe says he had the best stats of all Vikings punters in history.
Ayanbadejo told TMZ that Kluwe is “100 percent right” for believing he was fired for his views on gay rights.
“Ayanbadejo — who won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens — has been friends with Kluwe for a while (they both share the same views on gay rights) … and tells TMZ Sports he’s always suspected Kluwe’s activism was the real reason the Vikings cut Kluwe last year,” TMZ reports.
In yesterday’s op-ed, Kluwe claimed that one Vikings coach, Mike Priefer, told a group of players at a meeting that he wanted to “round up all the gays, send them to an island, and then nuke it until it glows.â€
Kluwe also called the three Vikings coaches who he says were behind his termination “cowards” and a “bigot.”
“It’s my belief,” Kluwe writes, “based on everything that happened over the course of 2012, that I was fired by Mike Priefer, a bigot who didn’t agree with the cause I was working for, and two cowards, Leslie Frazier and Rick Spielman, both of whom knew I was a good punter and would remain a good punter for the foreseeable future, as my numbers over my eight-year career had shown, but who lacked the fortitude to disagree with Mike Priefer on a touchy subject matter.”
The Vikings have denied Kluwe’s claims.
Image by Brendon Ayanbadejo via his Facebook page