var addthis_config = {“data_track_addressbar”:true};Chris Kluwe‘s op-ed in Deadspin today was exceptionally revealing. The former NFL Vikings star punter says he’s sure he was fired for his pro-marriage equality and pro-LGBT activism. Kluwe, who says that his career averages “remain the best in Vikings history,” has ignited a huge media focus on homophobia on the Vikings, especially after Kluwe’s revelations.
LOOK: Former NFL Star And LGBT Supporter Chris Kluwe Says ‘Cowards’ And A ‘Bigot’ Fired Him
“Near the end of November, several teammates and I were walking into a specialist meeting with Coach Priefer,” Kluwe writes. “We were laughing over one of the recent articles I had written supporting same-sex marriage rights, and one of my teammates made a joking remark about me leading the Pride parade. As we sat down in our chairs, Mike Priefer, in one of the meanest voices I can ever recall hearing, said: “We should round up all the gays, send them to an island, and then nuke it until it glows.”
The room grew intensely quiet, and none of the players said a word for the rest of the meeting. The atmosphere was decidedly tense. I had never had an interaction that hostile with any of my teammates on this issue—some didn’t agree with me, but our conversations were always civil and respectful. Afterward, several told me that what Mike Priefer had said was “messed up.”
In another revelation, Kluwe writes that apparently the Pope was a sensitive subject:
On Feb. 11, I received a message saying, “Please fly under radar please,” from a phone number I would later learn belonged to Rick Spielman. The text message presumably concerned several things I had tweeted that day regarding Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to step down. Spielman later called me and asked me to stop tweeting about the pope because angry people were ringing up team headquarters in Winter Park, Minn. It should be noted that my tweets concerned the lack of transparency and endemic institutional corruption of the Catholic Church, which among other things allowed child abuse to flourish. I also pointed out how that applied equally to financial and government institutions, and reiterated that I had nothing against anyone’s religion, only against the abuses of power that institutions allow.
Meanwhile, Aaron Rupar at CityPages this afternoon published another shocking Vikings revelation.
“Homophobic Vikings coach Mike Priefer’s son enjoys calling people ‘gay’ on Twitter,” Rupar writes, and posts these images from a user at Imgur, who clearly spent hours going through years of Priefer’s son’s tweets. That Twitter account is now locked.
Take a look:
Yes, there’s a campaign underway:
Help me spread the word about Mike Priefer and help eliminate homophobic bigots like him from coaching in the NFL pic.twitter.com/QeK4Hb2GY7
— Nick Wilson (@nick11vols) January 2, 2014