Former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe made shocking allegations of homophobia about some Vikings staffers last week, putting Minnesota’s NFL team under national scrutiny. The reaction from sports commentators both local and national has been telling.

TheColu.mn spent hours surveying local and national sports radio program segments on the Kluwe saga. The expectation was that, at the very least, the homophobia reflected in Kluwe’s accounts or in professional sports in general would translate to the sports commentary world. Or at the very least, there would be a “boys will boys” attitude about the team environment.

That was not the case.

On Jan. 2, Kluwe made some startling claims in a post on Deadspin: He was let go because of his outspoken views on equality for LGBT people, and management told him to keep quiet about his views. Kluwe alleges that special teams coach Mike Priefer made a particularly homophobic remark, one that’s become the focus of discussion.

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.

The Vikings have denied that Kluwe was fired because of his outspokenness and have initiated an outside investigation into Kluwe’s claims. Former teammates have denied Kluwe’s claims, and Kluwe insists he has witnesses. Both sides have lawyered up.

The sports radio world comprises the gatekeepers for information and opinion about what happens in professional sports. While many commentators didn’t take sides in the public drama unfolding between some Vikings players and staffers, and Kluwe, most condemned the homophobic content of the allegations. And some even noted that homophobia is a problem in professional football, and that the allegations made by Kluwe are not out of the realm of possibility for the NFL.

On WCCO’s Sports Huddle with Sid and Dave, Minnesota sports writer legend Sid Hartman gave his take.

“The Kluwe thing to me is more serious [than other recent Vikings scandals],” he said. Sid and Dave remarked that the saga has evoked strong emotions on both sides.

Sid then noted the positive. “The only positive with the Vikings is that Zygi Wilf went up to Kluwe and told him he admired his stand about the gay situation.”

Dave added, “That was one of the most interesting parts… This is a fascinating situation.”

Sid and Dave were referring to a story Kluwe had related in his Deadspin expose. Kluwe wrote:

On Sept. 9, before our game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the owner of the team, Zygi Wilf, came up to me, shook my hand, and told me: “Chris, I’m proud of what you’ve done. Please feel free to keep speaking out. I just came from my son’s best friend’s wedding to his partner in New York, and it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.”

While staying neutral to the Kluwe saga, Sid and Dave gave positive reviews to a pro-equality stance.

That was a similar theme at KFAN Dan Barreiro and Ron Rosenbaum addressed the Kluwe saga.

“This isn’t like saying, ‘I’m against same-sex marriage,'” Rosenbaum said referring to the “nuke ‘em” quote.

“I’m not sure any team is going to want to be associated with Priefer this at this point and I’m not sure if Kluwe is telling the truth either. The only one looking good was Zygi Wilf.”

Rosenbaum said, “There’s the claim that it’s a homophobic league” and that “no active player has ever come out. This kind of touches at the heart of real bigotry. I mean what Kluwe is claiming Priefer is saying is about as ugly as anything you can say.”

Other sports commentators said Priefer should be let go if Kluwe’s claims check out.

Paul Allen and Ben Leber discussed the issue on KFAN.

Allen said, “If there’s a pattern of what Chris is alleging, a repeated pattern…”

Leber said, “Then [Priefer] needs to go.”

Allen said, “That’s a key distinction… if he had only ever had the one instance of ‘all the gays should be nuked on an island,’ it’s awful, it would be a mistake. If it’s an ongoing, repeated thing then it’s different.”

That was a pattern in other media markets as well.

On the Howard Simon Show in Buffalo, New York, called for the firing of Priefer if the allegations can be proven.

“The league will investigate, it has to investigate what was allegedly said because if that is proven to be true… because that is a fireable offense.”

“I would not be surprised at all if this stuff was actually said. What coach would say that, thinking it’s going to come out in public at some point. They say tons of stuff that would make people cringe.”

“If you had to make me bet on that, I would say the guy did say that and thinking it’s never going to get past the locker room, it’ll never get out in public and now that it has, the league has to investigate this.”

Simon also suggested that Kluwe may be able to get a job in the NFL. “I think there would be a team that would look at him and say, ‘so your opinionated? And you can kick a football? So what?’”

Nationally syndicated sports radio commentator Jim Rome also concurred that if the allegations were true, Priefer should be fired.

Kluwe details closed door meetings and conversations with Frazier and Spielman where they urged him to keep his opinions to himself, and that refusing to do so got him fired.
Look, teams want two things from their punter: Catch it clean, kick it high. But according to Kluwe, this franchise had a hate monger running its special teams. He alleges that Priefer said in a team meeting, “We should round up all the gays, send them to an island and then nuke it until it glows.”
How about we send all the bigots instead? Priefer has denied the comments. But there’s no denying this: if Kluwe’s story is true… Priefer should be fired, the Vikings should be ashamed, and their old punter is nuking their facility til it glows.
Hell hath no fury like an outspoken special teamer scorned. Straight Fire.

Darin Anderson of UTN Sports questioned why social issues are taboo in sports.

So the question remains to be asked. Did the Minnesota Vikings release Chris Kluwe simply because of his progressive social views, as he claims?
Perhaps there another deeper question that is bigger than Kluwe’s circumstances: Is there enough room in professional sports for political and social activism?
In his Deadspin article, Chris Kluwe claims that Vikings management went to great lengths to silence him, telling him to “fly under the radar please” and that he “needed to be quiet, and stop speaking out on this stuff” in respects to social issues. But after Vikings teammate Adrian Peterson expressed his feelings about gay marriage (“I’m not with that. That’s not something I believe in,” Peterson said) there were no reports of Vikings brass calling him on the carpet. Sources: Deadspin.com and LATimes.com
It is a long prevailing idea that athletes are to keep quiet at best, and neutral at the very least, when it comes to social issues. But why is this the case? To be sure, oftentimes those who know the least are asked to say the most, and athletes are not always the most articulate speakers, or the most informed. But here we have Chris Kluwe, who is smart, informed, and well-spoken, and he is made to be quiet because he chooses to speak out.

While most in the sports world appeared to condemn the homophobia, a handful were on the defense. They were mainly on the fringe.

Dino Costa, a radio personality who was let go from Sirius XM’s Sportszone in October, made his homophobia known in tweets directed at Kluwe including one saying that he’s “fed up with the gay agenda being forced down my throat” and another that read “I’d like the opportunity to kick his pansy ass.“ Can’t Stop the Bleeding has the full story.

https://twitter.com/THEDINOPROJECT/status/418870582503952384

https://twitter.com/THEDINOPROJECT/status/418893070697263105

https://twitter.com/THEDINOPROJECT/status/418900029344997376

And as CityPages noted last week, ESPN 1500’s Jeff Dubay took issue with Kluwe and notion of “tolerance” and “lifestyles.”

Aside from a few outliers, the sports world has reacted with maturity to alleged homophobic comments and to homophobia in football in general. There still is no openly gay NFL player, but based on the handling of the Kluwe saga by sports commentators, when a player does come out, he’s less likely to be the butt of jokes or derision.