Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe had a rough game last week, including a botched 20-yard kick, and the team brought in free agent punter Brian Stahovich for a tryout, the Pioneer Press reports.
Pioneer Press columnist Bob Sansevere says the team was sending him a message.
Coach Leslie Frazier downplayed the Stahovich tryout and said he did not think off-the-field distractions affected Kluwe’s play, the Star Tribune reports. “He’s a pro,” Frazier said.
Kluwe said he understands the team pursuing its options, but he denies that his active role in the fight against a gay marriage ban takes his mind off the game, the Pioneer Press reports. “Why don’t you worry more about a children’s game than basic human rights?” Kluwe said. “Yeah, I’m generally going to go with basic human rights.”
Kluwe recently challenged politicians to a debate on gay marriage, but when he got no takers, he went ahead with the event anyway.
He’s been on the cover of Out magazine and is featured in an TV ad against the ballot measure that would effectively ban gay marriage by defining marriage in the state constitution as a union between a man and a woman. He garnered a kudos from Ellen DeGeneres, among others, when he engaged in a salty war of words with a Maryland lawmaker over gay marriage.
