Chris Kluwe chats with CNN’s Anderson Cooper about his firing from NFL, his allegations, and his future

I’ve been writing a lot in recent days over on Gay Star News about some blistering allegations LGBT ally Chris Kluwe has been making against a coach on his former team the Minnesota Vikings.

Chris, who became a huge media star for his way with words in defending the rights of LGBT Americans, was fired last spring after eight seasons.

Since his stats were about the same as previous seasons, one wondered if his activism played a role.

After remaining silent for seven months, Chris has come out swinging and is naming names. He alleges in a Deadspin article that he believes he was fired because of his activism and engineering his ouster was an assistant coach named Mike Priefer.

Kluwe claims Priefer started making homophobic slurs around him and at one point said in ‘one of the meanest voices’ he could ever recall hearing that ‘we should round up all the gays, send them to an island, and then nuke it until it glows.’

Priefer denies all and the Vikings have brought in two respected attorneys to conduct an investigation.

Okay, so now you are caught up.

Anderson Cooper interviewed Kluwe tonight on CNN. Here is some of what he had to say.

Cooper asked Kluwe if there are witnesses to Priefer’s behavior.

Kluwe: ‘Yes, there are — there are witnesses to all the things I put in that piece on Deadspin.  And, you know, I made sure that I had witnesses because otherwise that’s a very easy defamation of character case.  And you know it would be — would be pretty easy for him to prevail on the court of law.

What does he make of Priefer’s denial.

Kluwe:  ‘Well, you know, it’s not like he’s going to come out and say, yes, I said all those things, please end my career now, you know, generally these things go through a certain legal process.  But I’m 100 percent confident in everything that I related as how it happened and really encouraged by the fact that the Vikings are taking it seriously and opening an independent investigation because I think, you know, once they talk with people, they’ll find out what happened.’

Is he confident players will step forward and back up his account?

Kluwe: ‘Yes, I’m confident because, you know, it’s the right thing to do, and then also, one of the things that I’m going to push for and will absolutely demand, is the fact that there must be anonymity for these witnesses because being blackballed in the NFL is a very real possibility.  And that’s not something I’m willing to, you know, force my friends, my former teammates to submit to. And if it means interviewing all members of the 2012 Vikings in order to make sure that no one is singled out, then, you know, that’s what it takes.’

On his firing: ‘No one ever told me that I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to do.  And the only thing that changed from year eight to when I got cut is I started speaking out on same-sex rights.’

On whether his activism was a distraction for the team: ‘… It’s possible they felt, yes, maybe we don’t want our punter to be known in the media, but again, like I said, this — I felt that this was a cause worth speaking out on, and I think for the people who like to make the — you’re causing a distraction argument, a lot of sports pundits picked the Minnesota Vikings to have no more than five wins that year, and we ended up going 10-6 and going to the playoffs, so, you know, if that was a distraction, well, then, it obviously affected the team in a good way.’

On possible legal action: ‘I’m hoping to avoid that, because like I said I really don’t have any qualms with the Vikings organization as a whole.  This really is between me and three specific individuals, and I’m very encouraged by the Vikings opening an independent investigation with these two individuals because they have a good track record of getting to the truth and getting to it the right way.’

‘So, you know, legal option isn’t off the table, but it is definitely an option I would prefer to avoid because I still have friends in that franchise.  I know a lot of people there, and really I’m just hoping to get this over with as soon as possible and get the right thing done.’

Did his Deadspin article end his NFL career? ‘Yes, that pretty much threw the stick of dynamite on that bridge. … I think my time in the NFL is done.  I mean, you can’t write an article like that and expect to play again.’