{"id":20133,"date":"2013-05-06T12:37:33","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T17:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=20133"},"modified":"2014-05-09T15:12:12","modified_gmt":"2014-05-09T20:12:12","slug":"vikings-release-punter-chris-kluwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2013\/05\/06\/vikings-release-punter-chris-kluwe\/","title":{"rendered":"Vikings release punter Chris Kluwe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:left; padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px\" src=\"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Viking_Head.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Viking_Head\" width=\"80\" height=\"81\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-10672\" \/>Another case of not a surprise, but still a disappointment. Chris Kluwe has been released by the Minnesota Vikings after they drafted a punter in the fifth round of the April draft.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p>So long, Minnesota, and thanks for all the fish!<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Chris Kluwe (@ChrisWarcraft) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChrisWarcraft\/status\/331434490129956865\">May 6, 2013<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>ESPN&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/espn.go.com\/blog\/nfcnorth\/post\/_\/id\/56119\/chris-kluwe-release-the-role-of-advocacy\" target=\"_blank\">Kevin Seifert<\/a> ponders whether Kluwe&#8217;s outspoken character and public support of gay marriage and other causes played the prime role in the decision:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Here&#8217;s the key question to consider after the Minnesota Vikings made it official Monday and released punter Chris Kluwe: Would Kluwe be an ex-Viking today if he had never campaigned for gay rights, Hall of Fame candidacies and other issues?<\/p>\n<p>My informed guess: Probably.<\/p>\n<p>So what impact did Kluwe&#8217;s public advocacy play in the Vikings&#8217; decision? It moved the odds from &#8220;probably&#8221; to &#8220;certainty,&#8221; erasing any equity his eight-career with the franchise might otherwise have built.<\/p>\n<p>I know that explanation won&#8217;t satisfy those of you who are convinced the Vikings targeted Kluwe because he took on a politically and socially sensitive issue. It&#8217;s easy to see this move, contextualize it with the Baltimore Ravens&#8217; release of special-teams ace Brendon Ayanbadejo, and suspect an agenda against NFL players who get involved in the gay rights issue.<\/p>\n<p>I just don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s that simple. When viewed through the bigger picture of NFL business, and in the context of the Vikings&#8217; personnel approach over the past 16 months, you realize that Kluwe&#8217;s off-field life was at best the final shove at the end of the plank. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>With last season&#8217;s kicker drama as the Vikings drafted &#8220;The Blair Walsh Project&#8221; and then quickly cut Ryan Longwell, and Kluwe&#8217;s exit, one has to wonder if  Cullen Loeffler&#8217;s time as the team&#8217;s long-snapper is also coming to a close (it doesn&#8217;t help that he had a bad season in 2012).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another case of not a surprise, but still a disappointment. Chris Kluwe has been released by the Minnesota Vikings after they drafted a punter in the fifth round of the April draft. So long, Minnesota, and thanks for all the fish! &mdash; Chris Kluwe (@ChrisWarcraft) May 6, 2013 ESPN&#8217;s Kevin Seifert ponders whether Kluwe&#8217;s outspoken [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[474,198,196,126,179,190],"class_list":["post-20133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football","tag-chriskluwe","tag-equalrights","tag-lgbt","tag-minnesotavikings","tag-nfl","tag-samesexmarriage"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-5eJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20133"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20135,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20133\/revisions\/20135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}