I Was An NFL Player Until I Was Fired By Two Cowards And A Bigot

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Certainly seems like we have another Duck Dynasty situation but on the other side of the aisle.

The TL;DR is basically that Chris spoke out for marriage equality. However his coach was not cool with it.
Because of his views in the media he was fired. Even though he got permission from the organization to go ahead and support marriage equality.

In the same way I believe that A&E was wrong to suspend the Phil for expressing his beliefs. I think that it's wrong of the Vikings to fire Chris for expressing his beliefs.

what does everyone else think?

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.

reply to post by grey580


And on the flip side of this story is the fact that the Minnesota Vikings wanted to go with a cheaper, younger, better punter. There is no evidence that they "fired" Chris Kluwe because of his sexual orientation support of same sex marriage.

ETA:

To further illustrate Minnesota's stance that he was cut from the team due to his on the field performance:

his salary and uneven performance last season (he was ranked 17th in the league) left him vulnerable. He finished 22nd in gross average (45.0) and 31st in punts inside the 20 (18).

www.nytimes.com...

For those that may not know much about football, Chris Kluwe was an average to poor punter by NFL standards. His playing ability had been in decline for 4 consecutive seasons. His release from the team was a business decision for the betterment of the team's on the field performance.

LeatherNLace
reply to post by grey580

 

And on the flip side of this story is the fact that the Minnesota Vikings wanted to go with a cheaper, younger, better punter. There is no evidence that they "fired" Chris Kluwe because of his sexual orientation.

As difficult as it may be to imagine, Chris Kluwe is straight, not gay. He supports marriage equality.

reply to post by LeatherNLace


Your right they don't proof, and the Vikes have great plausible deniability, but i agree with him. When a punter gets established like he was with a team, it takes the sheer age of him usually to get cut from the team or also its done usually in the off season, A good punter is vital, and you don't wanna throw just anyone back there, if you need a comparison look at the Bengals recently. Lost their punter and had to go find one, no back up ready to go. So from a football stand point if your gonna bring up a strategic point then it doesn't fit with me. I think he may be blaming the wrong people, others wanted his head and the three just had to give it to them

reply to post by Sremmos80


Kluwe was satistically the worst punter in the NFL when he was cut.

reply to post by Sremmos80


He was cut in the off season; April 31, 2013 to be exact. AND Minnesota already had his replacement (Jeff Locke) on their roster before they cut him. (See the source I linked in my previous post for reference)

reply to post by LeatherNLace

For those that may not know much about football, Chris Kluwe was an average to poor punter by NFL standards. His playing ability had been in decline for 4 consecutive seasons. His release from the team was a business decision for the betterment of the team's on the field performance.

This seems far more likely than being canned for supporting LGBT.

Methinks this guy is just butt hurt that he got fired for being on the low end of the performance chart and is trying to find another 15 mins of fame.

~Tenth

Here's my opinion on it, assuming they did indeed fire him because of his vocal stance on marriage equality:

I don't personally agree with firing someone because they use their right to public speech, however, I believe that from an employer's standpoint, they have to right to fire someone for saying something that is counter to the company or corporation's standpoint.

What I thought A&E should have done was keep Phil, but they should have launched a MAJOR public service campaign on their network, discussing the importance of tolerance and marriage equality. I'm talking blasting hundreds of public service spots ALL DAY, EVERY DAY. They could get other stars from their other shows to be in the ads, talking about the need for equality for all. That way, NO ONE could ever get the wrong idea that A&E in any way agrees with Phil's nonsense. That way, Phil gets his free speech, and A&E gets theirs.

It's a little more complicated for the football team, isn't it? I mean, they can't exactly launch an ad campaign talking about how bad marriage equality is - that would make them look pretty awful. As a matter of fact, they already look pretty awful for firing the guy for preaching equality.

ETA: seeing what some of the others have posted, I would have to say that there is little evidence that the head honchos fired him strictly on his support of gay marriage - although I bet the coach would have been more than happy to fire him for that very reason.

reply to post by grey580


wow another non important person talking about a non issue being pushed on us by a media that is funded and controlled by a diabolical force that wants enslave us. Using tactics that cause separation amongst the peasants. You doing exactly what they want.

reply to post by LeatherNLace


So decline for 4 years and just as he makes a unsupported comment he is gone? Why not before if they had his back up ready to go? And can you post his back ups numbers to see if this was a vast improvement?

reply to post by LeatherNLace


Here is a link to his stats.

www.nfl.com...

Who was a good punter we can compare stats to?

reply to post by grey580


Look up andy lee, one of the better punters in the game

Here are the stats for 2012 for all punters.

Punters

Sremmos80
reply to post by LeatherNLace

 

So decline for 4 years and just as he makes a unsupported comment he is gone? Why not before if they had his back up ready to go? And can you post his back ups numbers to see if this was a vast improvement?

If you read the article I linked in my first post, many of your questions would be answered. He was in decline for 4 years, but he was under a contract with guaranteed money, he was basically un-cuttable due to his contract. Minnesota drafted his replacement a couple of weeks before they cut him. His replacement was ranked the 19th best punter in 2013, about the same as Kluwe, but he is a rookie and will get better with coaching. Most importantly, though, is that his replacement is $1-million dollars cheaper. Which is significant in the NFL where teams have league mandated salary caps and every penny counts.

LeatherNLace
reply to post by grey580

 

*snipped for brevity*

his salary and uneven performance last season (he was ranked 17th in the league) left him vulnerable. He finished 22nd in gross average (45.0) and 31st in punts inside the 20 (18).

www.nytimes.com...

*snipped for brevity*

Seems significant that you left out the first part of that sentence used in your quote above:

Though Kluwe’s career 44.4-yard gross average and 198 punts inside the 20-yard line are Vikings records,

Hmmm.

Seems to me the Vikings looked for a younger, potentially better punter, burned a 5th round draft pick on him, hired him, fired Kluwe and life went on. Kluwe's politics might have had something to do with it, or it might not have.

No one here can say definitively either way. If we do, we're "blowing smoke." Unless someone here has insider communications from Vikings management, it's OPINION.

LOL that list has Andy Lee below him so if ANY one knows football then you would know andy lee is one of the best punters, just goes to show you can't base it off the stats. They are kicking to the other team, there stats get erased with every return, penalty on the return. Blocks due to bad fundamentals ect ect. Im not saying his cut was 100% cause of what he said, but it was part of it. It was personal not business

Sremmos80
LOL that list has Andy Lee below him so if ANY one knows football then you would know andy lee is one of the best punters, just goes to show you can't base it off the stats. They are kicking to the other team, there stats get erased with every return, penalty on the return. Blocks due to bad fundamentals ect ect. Im not saying his cut was 100% cause of what he said, but it was part of it. It was personal not business

The order is a based on total yards. You can change the catagory.

One thing not mentioned is that Kluwe is known to have an attitude problem according to many people who know him.

reply to post by Gryphon66

Seems significant that you left out the first part of that sentence used in your quote above:

I left out that part of the sentence because his team records & past performance are irrelevant to his current performance. Nothing nefarious on my part...I simply did it for brevity.

Love!

regardless of his statistics he was a fighter for equality in a position where speaking your mind about such things are Taboo. in a "Game" where only "Men" play.

i doubt he can prove he was fired for his stances, but with other players accounts can provide testimonies of his coaches remarks.


hypothetically he was fired for his stances, how does this differ from Duck Dynasty?


Either way i am a big fan of him

reply to post by LeatherNLace


But you bring up the fact that he has been declining for four years... So his past is relevant when it works for you but if it brings out a positive.. it doesn't matter.