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How Chris Kluwe Made A Difference While Being A Bit Of A Dick

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Last Friday the Vikings—upon conclusion of an independent investigation I’ve profiled here—suspended Special Teams Coordinator Mike Priefer for 3 games and donated $100,000 to LGBT charities. The result was informative if underwhelming, corroborating ex-Punter Chris Kluwe’s claim that Priefer did utter the one heinous, and now infamous quote, highlighted in his Deadspin article.

But beyond that, the report did not support Kluwe’s accusations that he was unjustly terminated, or that Vikings’ management went on a silent vendetta against him because of his LGBT-rights activism. Since Kluwe was gunning for $1,000,000 and a more severe punishment for Priefer, he was none too pleased at what he sees as a crony-esque coverup by the independent investigator, and a trickle of breadcrumbs doled out by a smug, degenerate Vikings organization.

Combine this with the report’s account of a crass running joke concerning the Penn State child molestation scandal Kluwe actively participated in, and you get the bumbling, thoroughly puerile Twitter spat from this past weekend, which saw Kluwe taking on all-comers, turning his narrative from advocate to attention-grabber (at best) and/or hypocrite (at worst). Employing the classic—the best defense is a good offense—mentality, Kluwe also cracked several new cans of worms, leveling blanket accusations at his former teammates, and in general equating an NFL locker room with Sodom & Gomorahh.

Kluwe’s aggressive new tact also focuses on an exclusion narrative, where the big bad NFL, while welcoming back violent misogynists with open arms, refuses to accept Kluwe back because he put his reputation on the line for civil rights. Yet while Kluwe may be onto something in signalling a need for new levels of transparency in professional sports organizations, the bumbling, post-hoc way the crusade is evolving (not to mention the arrogant, holier-than-thou tone) is making it easy for bystanders to write him off as an eye-ball-grabber.

Not to mention building his moral argument on a narrative of exclusion flies in the face of reality, as Vikings’ fans can attest that Kluwe’s current unemployment is predicated on his diminishing skill as a punter. And while the investigation was not released in its entirety, one thing that seems clear and carefully documented in the portion released is the Vikings were certainly not discriminating against Kluwe when releasing him in 2013. Two facts that back this up are how outside parties were brought in to evaluate Kluwe’s 2012 season performance (and their grades for him were low), and that of all coaches on the team, Mike Priefer was the one who gave him the closest thing to praise in terms of his performance.

Kluwe’s new change.org campaign is demanding the investigation be released in its entirety, and in this I find the one sticking-point where he’s still unequivocally in the right. Hopefully the Vikings PR team are simply lollygagging, taking their time to fashion their spin, and the whole of the report will be released expediently.

And of course in light of the fact that only a portion of the report that’s been released, is it possible to know for sure whether the Vikings are flawlessly pulling a legal one-over on us? Of course not. Like any story of organizational misconduct—a rigged election or an alleged under-the-table deal—you normally don’t whiff the real story unless you’re on the ground. Even facts are not the deciding factor in such scenarios, as they could have been manufactured by ‘the regime’. In such cases what bystanders have to go on primarily are reputation—which is why Kluwe’s conduct this weekend, while he likes to think it signals a whole new, titillating chapter of this story, for most people just kills its full stop. With his combative, arrogant conduct, Kluwe comes off less like a thoughtful advocate, and more like a self-interested actor—tangentially aiming to host some future, nebulous reality show, or perhaps a gig on talk radio.

And that’s too bad, because if Kluwe had been a little more humble, gentle, pragmatic in his approach, he may not have isolated himself so far from the NFL’s good graces—from the corridors of power where he might have had a chance to make good on the capital he’s accrued as a public advocate. With the dust well-settled on this investigation, would the NFL one day have been interested in utilizing Kluwe as a PR advocate for a new, more tolerant NFL? It might seem far-fetched, but if you had told me three years ago we’d see a defensive end smooching his boyfriend on national TV after being picked by the Rams, I wouldn’t have believed you.

While an ugly affair, overall this story will still go down as a small victory for LGBT-awareness and corporate ethics in professional North American sports. And while it’s unfortunate Kluwe pissed away some capacity to make a difference long-term and allowed himself to be easily belittled as a ‘polarizing figure’, by being too keen to grab the lime light (the investigation also revealed former teammate Blair Walsh opined Kluwe ‘loved getting attention’), in reality change is never a straight line; no matter how morally cut-and-dried an issue seems, there’s shades of moral scrupulousness and unscrupulousness on both sides.

This is why humility is quite underrated.

And also why Chris Kluwe is the perfect example of this: a man who made a positive difference, while being a bit of a dick.

Author: Christopher Lee Friesen

Christopher Lee Friesen is a graduate neuroscience student at Dalhousie University who had his heart broken in the 1998 NFC Championship Game. He writes fiction and non-fiction about sports, ethics, economics and other human matters.

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