{"id":36176,"date":"2013-05-06T10:15:03","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T15:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=36176"},"modified":"2013-05-06T10:15:03","modified_gmt":"2013-05-06T15:15:03","slug":"without-a-kluwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=36176","title":{"rendered":"Without a Kluwe"},"content":{"rendered":"

The foot of the Minnesota Vikings’ punter will no longer be in his mouth.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Chris Kluwe: so focused on his job<\/p><\/div>\n

There is a truism in all professional life that your cost, real or perceived, cannot outweigh your value. \u00a0Once that threshold is crossed, there is often little incentive for an employer to maintain such an employee.<\/p>\n

Of course, that truism seems to take an extraordinary beating when it comes to being applied in the world of professional sports. \u00a0Athletes are excused all manner of crimes and statements while staying employed. \u00a0Kobe Bryant hardly suffered despite allegations of rape. \u00a0Michael Vick emerged from jail for the cruel practice of dog fighting and resumed his NFL career. \u00a0Mike Tyson’s been in and out of jail three times. \u00a0If he goes back a forth time, apparently it’s free.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Chris Kluwe: so totally focused on his job<\/p><\/div>\n

In that light, the Minnesota Vikings’ expected release<\/a> of outspoken punter\/gay-marriage advocate\/musician\/video-game enthusiast\/Deadspin contributor\/gameboard store owner\/all-around stunted adolescent Chris Kluwe hardly seems fair. \u00a0Kluwe has maintained a decent-to-high punting yards average since joining the NFL (notwithstanding his drop to 22nd in the NFL in 2012<\/a>). And in a league that doesn’t even have a punter in their Hall of Fame (another source of Kluwe-influenced controversy<\/a>), Kluwe may be the most relatively famous punter in history.<\/p>\n

The problem? \u00a0None of that notoriety comes from his actions on the field. \u00a0The Star Tribune’s<\/em> Chip Scoggins danced around the elephant in the stadium when he\u00a0wrote Kluwe’s Vikings career post-mortem in advance<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Kluwe\u2019s departure will make the Vikings locker room a lot more dull because he is incredibly intelligent, articulate and passionate about societal issues. He\u2019s a fascinating individual in a sport that breeds conformity. The NFL has become so big and so powerful that players often cling to political correctness for fear that a ripple might swell into a tidal wave. Kluwe is that surfer dude on top of the wave, hanging 10 on any issue that stirs his emotion.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo single thing that I do defines me as a person,\u201d he said. \u201cJust because I play football, that doesn\u2019t define me as a person.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"

Chris Kluwe: like so very focused on his job<\/p><\/div>\n

The message is unmistakable – Chris Kluwe’s gay marriage advocacy cost him his job. \u00a0And Scoggins et al are correct…sort of.<\/p>\n

Kluwe’s value to the Minnesota Vikings was as a $1.4 million a year player at a reasonably expendable position. \u00a0Simply put – you don’t get to be a distraction if you’re easily replaceable. \u00a0And by every definition, Chris Kluwe is a distraction. \u00a0Kluwe has run his mouth on issues beyond gay marriage. \u00a0He’s been fined for “campaigning” for Ray Guy to get into the Hall of Fame. \u00a0He’s appeared on the website Deadspin several times over the 2011 NFL Lockout where he attacked numerous players over their views<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Chris Kluwe: so super duper focused on his job<\/p><\/div>\n

Worse, Kluwe’s tactics are the epitome of his generation – foul-mouthed personal attacks against anyone who disagrees. \u00a0Pro-lockout players are “douchebags” who stand for\u00a0“pretty much the definition of greed.”<\/a>\u00a0 His opponents are “a**hole f**kwits”<\/a>, which also suggests he’s a plagiarist since I’m sure he stole that from Oscar Wilde.<\/p>\n

In truth, the media needs Chris Kluwe’s release to be about his vocal and abusive activism<\/a>. \u00a0Because admitting to solidarity with Kluwe’s political views, and his ability to deliver good copy to sportswriters and sports radio networks, is harder than portraying the SoCal punter as a victim of a 1st Amendment NFL crackdown. \u00a0Does anyone seriously believe that if Kluwe had come out passionately against gay marriage (ala Matt Birk<\/a>), and<\/em> saw his production dive, that those arguing against Kluwe’s release today would be defending his penchant to “hanging 10 on any issue that stirs his emotion”?<\/p>\n

\"\"

Chris Kluwe: so focused…on finding his next job<\/p><\/div>\n

Kluwe mocked even his own Special Teams coach for suggesting the punter needed to focus on his job with the hashtag “so focused.” \u00a0Here’s hoping that Chris Kluwe finds the time to focus on realizing that being a public relations bully to those who don’t share his worldview isn’t the best way to advance what’s left of his career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The foot of the Minnesota Vikings’ punter will no longer be in his mouth. There is a truism in all professional life that your cost, real or perceived, cannot outweigh your value. \u00a0Once that threshold is crossed, there is often little incentive for an employer to maintain such an employee. Of course, that truism seems […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":425,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,4,62,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-ringer","category-media","category-state-of-affairs","category-the-rare-sports-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36176"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36203,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36176\/revisions\/36203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}