Minnesota legislators call out Vikings owner for ‘underwhelming response’ to Kluwe investigation
By Josh Sanchez
The Minnesota Vikings have been under fire for their failure to disclose information from the investigation into alleged homophobic comments made by special teams coach Mike Priefer.
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The investigation was brought about by former punter Chris Kluwe, who also believes he was released by the team because of his outspoken support of the LGBT community.
Priefer was given a minimal suspension, and the Vikings are now being asked to take responsibility.
17 Minnesota legislators penned a letter to Vikings owner Zygi Wolf asking for answers.
The letter opened:
"You and the Vikings have been asked repeatedly to conduct a fair, impartial and transparent investigation into claims by Chris Kluwe about actions, statements and the culture inside the organization. And if those claims were found to have merit, you and the Vikings have also been urged more than once to take sufficiently strong action. There has been failure on both counts.We are writing for two reasons. Release the entire investigation that is now complete. Secondly, the course of action that has been chosen in response to Mike Priefer’s now admitted homophobic statement and his repeated lying about the matter is totally inadequate."
The letter then called out the Vikings for their “underwhelming” response to the Priefer comments.
"Donald Sterling’s highly offensive bigoted remarks did not come close to calling for the destruction of an entire class of individuals. Even so, he was rightly banned by the NBA and forced to sell his basketball team. A three, possibly shortened to two, game suspension for Priefer is an underwhelming response. Imagine if Priefer had called for the extermination of any other group of people – communities of color or religious minorities, for example. It is a safe bet that the rush to sweep the whole subject under the rug would not be so fast."
Finally, the legislators focused on all of the taxpayers dollars that are going towards a new stadium.
"It bears remembering that the taxpayers are contributing nearly a half billion dollars to build a new stadium for the Vikings, allowing a considerable boost in its revenues. It is also important to make note of the fact that Minnesota taxpayers are being asked yet again to contribute to the bottom line of an already very profitable industry with $10 billion in revenues, in the form of continuing a sales tax exemption on ticket purchases for the NFL’s 2018 Super Bowl.In light of this enormous public effort, it is imperative that your organization be held accountable. This is especially true when it would seem that Vikings leadership is turning a blind eye to such egregious misconduct and seems determined to remain opaque to the very public which has invested so much in the success of your team."
By not holding members of their organization accountable, the Vikings are looking bad in the eyes of the public and that is not what such a big franchise should be doing when they are receiving funds from the public.
Minnesota needs to release the findings of the investigation so that no one is in the dark.