rights to fire me for doing so. you know, they are perfectly capable of doing that. on the flip side, it s within my rights to speak out on that and say, here s what happened. is this the type of society we want to live in? you talk about yourself as being blacklisted. you suspect tuesday to your outspoken views, you re having trouble finding a job in the nfl despite the fact you can still perform as an athlete. i want to get your reaction to this. in 2012, san diego tribune found 21 of 32 nfl teams at one point that year had a player with a domestic violence or sexual assault charge on his record. is there a double standard that the league will allow people that have these kinds of criminal entanglements back on to play, no problem, but someone like yourself is now looking at exile? i think it is a problem, and i think it s one that we as society let the nfl get away with because we re more concerned about seeing players that will entertain us with feats of athletic fortitude on
happened to me, i was essentially drummed out of the league, off the team, because of the things i said. to come out in support of me would be inviting the same sort of treatment. i m not surprised players haven t spoken up, and, you know, it s really being blacklisted in the nfl is definitely a thing that can happen. that s one of the main things i also want to make sure happens is that when i when witnesses have to talk that their anonymity is completely guaranteed. i don t want to see that happen to former teammates of mine or friends of mine. there are people i think who have reacted who said basically something along the lines of the following. you were very outspoken. you were kind of a provocateur, had a very high public profile compared to your average nfl player. that something like this was inevitable. it wasn t necessarily that the content of the views but just the fact the nfl wants its players to essentially be seen and not heard. yeah, and that s definitely an argum
coming up later, former minnesota vikings punter chris clue we, why he thinks he s been blacklisted from the nfl. eight years for the vikings, i did what they wanted to. i had no complaints about my job performance. my numbers were very, very consistent. so what changed between that eighth year and ninth year, well, i started speaking out. what she was speaking out about and the impact that could have on the nfl, ahead. [ male announcer ] what kind of energy is so abundant, it can help provide the power for all this?
attest to his character. his professionalism in the workplace is exemplary and i firmly believe my teammates wholeheartedly agree. and announcing an independent investigation into kluwe s allegations. this highlights yet another dark story behind the curtain of america s most popular and most profitable professional sport. joining me now, former vikings punter chris kluwe. thanks for coming on tonight. first question, i guess, is you seem to in the piece you wrote wrestled for a long time about whether or not to go public with this story. what eventually tipped you over and decided to do it? well, i knew it was a story i wanted to tell, and one of the reasons why i wanted to wait is because i didn t want to drop that story on my former teammates during season because it would have been a huge distraction for them. and i also wanted to try out for other teams during this year to show i could physically still play in nfl. but apparently, you know, i can still kick it 45 yards outside
in just a moment. first i want to go back to something we first talked about on the show on friday. a former minnesota viking punter chris kluwe gained notoriety last summer when he came out in support of marriage equality by writing an open letter to emmett c. burns jr. calling burns a bigot. big got for encouraging the nfl to steer clear of supporting gay rights. then last week, kluwe just about blew up the internet with a tell-all letter published on deadspin.com in which he suggested he was cut from the vikings because of his gay writes advocacy, writing i honestly don t know if my activism was the reason i got fired. however, i m pretty confident it was. kluwe also accused special teams coach mike priefer of bigotry for allegedly saying in a team meeting, we should round up all the gays, send them to an island and nuke it until it glows. some of kluwe s former teammates rallied around the coach. blair walsh, i personally can attest to his character. his professionalism in the