Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies by Chris Kluwe

He's so smart and so funny I can hardly wait to read this. His bio:


Chris Kluwe grew up in Southern California among a colony of wild chinchillas and didn't learn how to communicate outside of barking and howling until he was fourteen years old. He has played football in the NFL, once wrestled a bear for a pot of gold, and lies occasionally. He is also the eternal disappointment of his mother, who just can't understand why he hasn't cured cancer yet. Do you know why these bio things are in third person? I have no idea.




beautifully unique

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Updated On: 6/23/13 at 01:06 PM

And - not that it should make a difference - he's also fine as hell.

Exactly!

Glad to see I'm not the only fan of Kluwe on here. I'm looking forward to reading this.

I saw him on Ellen a few months ago, and he is awesome!

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I can believe Kluwe has gotten somewhat blackballed by his outspokenness but he is needed in the game.

Mark Priefer is probably the tip of the iceberg in dinosaur coaches but they're the reason why there are gay players who remain in the closet for their playing careers. His son sounds like a peach.

A number got dropped at the end of your link there.

The other link was the coach's son using homophobic slurs all over Twitter.
I Was An NFL Player Until I Was Fired By Two Cowards And A Bigot

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I just read the article, heard ESPN's take on it (pretty much they questioned his ability as a punter if he has yet to be picked up by another team.) And, have my own thoughts on the situation.

However, a couple of things need to be pointed out. Kluwe gave any and all coaches who disagree with him a golden ticket. There are two ways that they can avoid having someone who's outspoken against their personal views not play for them, without having to tell the world that they think that same sex relationships are evil.

Reason number one, the article. Any coach can say that they are concerned that Kluwe will write another "tell all" about their team, and feel that that's something that can get in the way of locker room moral and trust. They don't know if he will do it again (I doubt that he will, but I can see why they might be concerned that he will.)

Reason number two, they can "outsource." If there are players out there who would play the same position for less pay than someone like Kluwe, the coaches can use that as a reason not to bring him to their team. It's a no brainer, even for someone that doesn't know football at all. If your a business that can save money by hiring people overseas to do the same work for less pay, wouldn't you do that? That's kind of what's going on here. Kluwe's a veteran and has played for a good long while. Rookies are more likely to be willing to pay for less money. These are two reasons why Kluwe might not play but the bigoted coaches don't have to show their true colors.

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^ As well there should be.

Screw football. Now he can be America's Ben Cohen. :)

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Strummergirl,

First off, we are going to have to politely disagree about ESPN. Yes, while there is an entertainment factor to what they do, I feel that when it comes to football, they do more than just show the model wives of players or players getting hit hard etc.

They have been critiqued for favoring some markets over others. And, the one thing that did bother me was how often they would talk about how good the Seahawks are this year, then proceed to talk about how no one is covering them (with their hunch always being that it's because they are in the northwest.) Of course I do find it to be ironic that they say that without realizing that they can, if they wanted to give them more coverage.

With that being said,the show was NFL Live, where they were spending a vast majority of the show talking about the upcoming playoffs which start today (saturday.) They mentioned the Deadspin article, and mentioned how Kluwe shouldn't blame his departure from the Vikings entirely on being vocal about his viewpoints. That it should say something about him as a player since he tried to find another team, but no one wanted him. They seemed to make it seem like him being vocal about equal rights didn't come into play regarding his departure.

For what it's wroth, the impression I got from Kluwe from reading the article was that the truth was somewhere between the two. And, that it wasn't strictly one or the other. I mean, he's clearly aware of how pay works in the NFL, and how it's like outsourcing in that any team would give a rookie a position if they can do a good enough job since they cost less in salary than a veteran. LIke I said earlier, I feel by writing that article he shot himself in the foot. Even if he was still good enough ( and I think he is) to get another job, no one is going to want to pick up a player who may give the impression that he is going to go public with private team information. Furthermore, it allows coaches who are bigots to use that as a smokescreen to stand behind.

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I got the distinct impression that Kluwe doesn't really care if he works for the NFL again.

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