Chris Kluwe burning bridges

He published an account of his treatment by the Vikings and called a ST coach a bigot.

http://deadspin.com/i-was-an-nfl-player-until-i-was-fired-by-two-cowards-an-1493208214

 

Just got done reading that.

Whoa is my immediate reaction.

 

Interesting column, and some very specific information that Priefer will have to answer for.

His case would he helped greatly if he hadn't been a below-average punter scheduled to make $1.4 million who was later cut by the Raiders in a purely performance-based competition.

 

The way I read it, Kluwe believes it gave teams one more excuse to get rid of him, on top of everything else. Although, no doubt, he believes, and provides evidence, that no one had a problem with his performance, age and salary until he started talking about "The Gays."

 

i like kluwe and generally sympathize with him, but the fact is that kluwe not only lost out on his job in minnesota, but then he was cut by the raiders in preseason and also went to in-season tryouts with the bills and the bengals, if i recall correctly, and the jobs went to others. the last three teams obviously knew of his political beliefs when they gave him a shot at playing for them.

to me at least part of this is that he is an athlete facing football mortality, and he would rather ascribe this painful reality to his political beliefs than to his performance.

 

Performance things noted, I don't think he got blackballed necessarily for being an ally, I think he got blackballed for having interesting opinions, so to speak. In today's NFL, where teams are scotch-taping the windows so media can't see in on Black Monday, no one (coaches/front office/players) wants to have to answer questions regarding a Controversy of the Day started by the punter. For example, If Riley Cooper were a backup or even not a skill position player, I doubt he'd have played anywhere this season.

Kluwe appears to have come to terms with the fact that he'll never work in the NFL again, and I think he decided now to take everyone he can with him. Just as good as napalming the boss in an exit interview on the way out the door, which I'm sure more than a few Americans have fantasized over.

 

To add to UPChip's point -- there was one thing that did not reflect well on Kluwe, and that was the day he was tweeting about the pope and the Catholic Church. That seemed to be in violation of his agreement with Frazier/Wilf, who indulged his passion for one issue but weren't aware that he was going to be opining on all social and political matters.

He ran into the time-honored sports rule that you better be worth the trouble.

 

According to Kluwe, when they asked him, he stopped.

However, he's hardly the first player to feel like (with justification) that his outspokenness, especially on political issues, led to his ouster and/or being blackballed. Bill Lee pops into the top of my head.

Perhaps Luke Scott will opine he feels his political outspokenness is why he's playing in South Korea. http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/12/18/luke-scott-signs-with-korean-team/

 

But Bob, he isn't a very good punter anymore.

 

I'm not arguing he's a great punter. His numbers are middling. Not terrible, not great, but in the middle. (Remember, too, his contention he punted higher, rather than longer, in 2012, under team orders.) In reading Kluwe's piece, his political activism didn't get him cut, but it greased the skids, because no one was going to stand up for him. It also accelerated the process of finding his replacement.

Also, I wonder if the piece is way more personal than "the NFL won't employ me." He seems to have some understanding he doesn't have the leg that will guarantee him a job. In the end, I think he wants to make sure if he can't have a job, neither can Priefer, who may well be in line to be the Vikings next head coach.

 

I am in total agreement with this. And I give it the thumbs up too. Really no reason to hide what an asshat Priefer is.

It just grates me a little bit that Kluwe has become such a martyr. Have seen many Facebook posts about him in the last year or so, from people who know a lot about gay rights but nothing about football, and all of them fall into line with the idea that he is an elite player who has been exiled for his beliefs.

 

Kluwe was beaten out in Oakland by Marquette Smith, who led the league in gross average this year and was 12th in the league in net with a 40.1 average. Jeff Locke, who replaced Kluwe in Minnesota, was 24th in gross average at 44.2 yards per average and tied for 18th in net with 39.2.

Kluwe averaged 45 in gross and 39.7 in net for Minnesota last year and ranked 22nd and 17th in those categories respectively.

So, unless he was truly awful in camp and in his tryouts this year, he still appears capable of punting in the league, although with the Vikings, they probably figured on saving money with the cap.