Late last month, the Minnesota Vikings and one of their former players, punter Chris Kluwe, reached a settlement over what the player described as the organization’s intolerance toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.
The settlement calls for the team to donate an undisclosed sum to five charities over the next five years that benefit LGBT groups as well as sponsor a fundraiser. Kluwe, who was cut by the Vikings prior to the 2013 season, will receive no money as part of the settlement.
The controversy began last January when Kluwe penned an article for sports website Deadspin, which accused special teams coach Mike Priefer of saying, “We should round up all the gays, send them to an island, and then nuke it until it glows.”
That revelation led the Vikings to conduct an independent investigation, which spawned a 150-page report. The Vikings, however, were reportedly hesitant to release the report, which led Kluwe and his attorney, Clayton Halunen, to threaten the filing of a lawsuit. The team, and the NFL by extension, became a whipping boy for some sports law experts, such as Howard Wasserman, a Professor of Law at the Florida International University College of Law. He offered his thoughts in the Sportslawblog.com.
“The report concludes that the Vikings were not concerned with the content of Kluwe’s advocacy, but with the fact of his advocacy and the ‘distraction’ it was creating,” wrote Wasserman. “While it perhaps gets the team out from liability for retaliation, the notion that players are doing something wrong–something that justifies cutting them–by being politically engaged is a pretty reprehensible stance for the team to take. The NFL (and all professional sports leagues) makes a big deal of how all the charitable work players do–in fact, much of this work is required of the players. The league supposedly wants its players to be engaged. But it is beyond hypocritical and paternalistic to punish a player for having enough of an engaged mind to pick his own causes.”
After the settlement, all was hunky-dory between the parties.
“This will help a lot of people that really need that help,” Kluwe said. “I think the Vikings are committed to making changes. I think they’re committed on this issue in the NFL, and I think it will make a difference over the upcoming year.”
Kevin Warren, Vikings executive vice president of legal affairs, elaborated, discussing the sensitivity training that will be undertaken.
“What we’re doing now is breaking it up into four different seminars,” Warren told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “We’ll have players, coaches and staff people so that we can make sure that the training that we do is much more focused for that individual group. … We just want to continually enhance what we’ve already been doing … to make sure we’re doing the proper training to help educate our organization.”
Vikings owner Zygi Wilf also issued his own statement.
“We appreciate Chris Kluwe’s contributions to the Minnesota Vikings as a player and a member of this organization during his eight seasons in which he established many team records as our punter, and we wish him and his family the best in the future,” he said. “In regards to this matter, our focus remains on maintaining a culture of tolerance, inclusion and respect, and creating the best workplace environment for our players, coaches and staff.”
