The investigation into Chris Kluwe’s harsh allegations against special teams coordinator Mike Priefer should be completed within a couple of weeks, the Pioneer Press reported Monday.
Investigators have one more interview – scheduled Friday – before the process is done.
“That’s very good news,” Kluwe said to Vikings beat writer Chris Tomasson. “We’ve been waiting a while, and I think everybody is anxious to see what it contains.’’
Kluwe wrote a first-person article for Deadspin.com in early January, where he called Priefer a “bigot” and claimed part of the reason the Vikings released him was because of his support for the LGBT community.
[Priefer] would ask me if I had written any letters defending “the gays” recently and denounce as disgusting the idea that two men would kiss, and he would constantly belittle or demean any idea of acceptance or tolerance. I tried to laugh these off while also responding with the notion that perhaps they were human beings who deserved to be treated as human beings. Mike Priefer also said on multiple occasions that I would wind up burning in hell with the gays, and that the only truth was Jesus Christ and the Bible … I felt uncomfortable each time Mike Priefer said these things. After all, he was directly responsible for reviewing my job performance …
Kluwe included a line about a time when Priefer allegedly said: “We should round up all the gays, send them to an island, and then nuke it until it glows.”
Priefer “vehemently” denied the allegations and he remains employed by the Vikings.
The investigation will have taken about six months to complete.
In early February, Kluwe’s attorney Clayton Halunen told the Star Tribune that the team’s internal investigation was nothing more than a “big charade.”
“They are just going to protect Priefer as if nothing happened and simply pretend that this outrageous conduct didn’t occur, when the evidence is quite the contrary,” Halunen said.
Kluwe remains an unrestricted free agent.
