MINNESOTA: Vikings Coach Suspended For Anti-Gay Remarks, Kluwe Vindicated

Early this year former Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe declared that Vikings Special Teams Coach Mike Priefer had called for rounding up all gay people, putting them on an island, and "nuking it until it glows." Kluwe has contended that his departure from the team came, at least in part, because Priefer objected to his nationally famous advocacy for LGBT rights. On Friday, the Vikings announced that their investigation showed that Priefer had indeed made the anti-gay remarks and that he has been suspended for three games. Via CBS Sports:

The Vikings said that three-game suspension could be reduced to two games provided that Priefer "also attend individualized anti-harassment, diversity and sexual-orientation sensitivity training." Priefer also apologized in a statement. "I owe an apology to many people -- the Wilf family, the Minnesota Vikings organization and fans, my family, the LGBT community, Chris Kluwe and anyone else that I offended with my insensitive remark," Priefer said. "I regret what has occurred and what I said. I am extremely sorry but I will learn from this situation and will work on educating others to create more tolerance and respect." The team announced that it would donate $100,000 to LGBT rights charitable and educational organizations.

The Vikings report also contains "negative information" about Kluwe, prompted him to threaten to release more "dirty" stories about the Vikings. He also said that his $10M lawsuit against the team will continue. The Vikings' action against Preifer is being denounced as "homofascism" across Teabagistan.

More from Think Progress:

The Vikings lawyers acknowledge that Kluwe was encouraged by Vikings management to scale back his activism in support of LGBT rights, but insist it was completely unrelated to the substance of his activism. The analysis claims that “players and management were concerned about the distraction that Kluwe’s activism was creating, as opposed to the nature and content of his activism.” Of course, it was the “nature and content of his activism” that ultimately created the “distraction.” It’s hard to image if Kluwe was speaking out to reduce childhood obesity that it would have become an issue.

Although the full investigation has not been released, the Vikings lawyers did make sure to include information that casts Kluwe in a negative light. Specifically, the analysis alleges that Kluwe made crude jokes about the Penn State rape scandal. Kluwe appeared to confirm the allegations were true on Twitter but that the jokes were pervasive throughout the entire team. No one claims Kluwe was fired for the jokes so it’s unclear what relevance they had to the investigation.