Posted on 09/30/2012 8:47:04 AM PDT by montag813
Minnestoa Vikings punter Chris Kluwe and Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo have made headlines this year for their vocal support of same-sex marriage.
Now Kluwe's former teammate -- and Ayanbadejo's current one -- Baltimore Ravens center Matt Birk, has joined the fray. Birk wrote an editorial in Saturday's Minneapolis Star-Tribune that takes the other side of the issue.
Celebrating the free-speech rights of Kluwe and others, Birk complains that people who are "simply acknowledging the basic reality of marriage between one man and one woman are being labeled as 'bigots' and 'homophobic.'"
"Same-sex unions may not affect my marriage specifically, but it will affect my children -- the next generation. Ideas have consequences, and laws shape culture," Birk writes. "Marriage redefinition will affect the broader well-being of children and the welfare of society. As a Christian and a citizen, I am compelled to care about both."
Birk is a native Minnesotan who came into the league with the Vikings in 1998; he and Kluwe were teammates for four seasons in Minnesota.
As for the Vikings punter, he wrote on Twitter that Birk's editorial didn't escape his attention:
Chris Kluwe
@ChrisWarcraft
Yes I saw Matt Birk's piece, yes I will be crafting a response, but it won't be until after the game tomorrow. Locked in on the job now.
Does a punter count as a football player?
Locked in on the job?
Punting or receiving?....
Can Goodell suspend him or kick him out of the NFL?
The little foreign kicker punter is always the most well endowed or so i heard
Uh oh, Birk is a center. When he assumes his position his faggot teammates may think he is “presenting”.
So? Kluwe is an enabler of the sodomite agenda...yawn.
"I'm gonna keeck a touchdown."
About time! In the 2007 season, 66 percent of NFL players were black>>>>>
This means NFL players would elect Obama
Nope.
If other players are allowed to promote perversion certainly Birk can speak out for decency, morality and common sense.
I remember Birk. He was on the ill-starred 98 team which I’ve tried for over a decade to banish from memory.
I imagine that if Goodell were to act against Birk the owners would not appreciate the blatant politicization of the League.
I’m not sure about putter being a football player. I do know that a placekicker is a soccer player that wanted to make money.
While I am supportive of Mr Birk’s editorial - as an opinion I support, there is another part of me that would prefer that his editorial, and those of the NFL players who Mr. Birk disagrees with - on the issue of “same-sex mariage”, were NOT part of our social fabric.
Why?
I wish ALL - 100% - of our “celebrities” kept their political opinions to within their own circle of friends and acquaintances, and NOT PUBLIC.
I wish we could, as a nation, enjoy our sports, our entertainment, our movies and such NOT knowing the political opinions of any of the celebrities that entertain us.
I wish that entertainment in the nation was left uncolored, unaffected by and not trying to affect our political battles, and that when we went to enjoy our entertainment we could just sit back and enjoy it, without the politics the celebrities have introduced into our view of them, and consequently our appreciation, or lack of appreciation for their basic talent being affected by what we now think of THEIR politics.
Yes, I loved the speech by Clint Eastwood at the GOP convention; and I have always liked most of his movies.
But, I can honestly imgaine that were the majority of Hollyweird NOT falling down in love with Obama, that Clint might have declined the offer to speak at the GOP convention, preferring to keep the vast majority of his political views part of his personal life (as they most often have been) and not so highly visible in his public life - which, for me, is where it ought to be for all celebrities.
That’s just me.
I know many American talents, who I often appreciated, as far as their talents go, but, having made their political views a large part of their public persona, everything they do now is now diminshed for me because I cannot separate how wrong they are politically from the performance they are giving.
For most of the time when I was growing up, until at least the 1960s, even though I was very intensely watching the political scene from a young age, our American entertainers were not a visible part of it, and sports and entertainment were enjoyed by everyone - because OUR politics did not interefere.
I wish it were that way again; that’s all I’m trying to say; and no I am not blaming Mr Birk. I think the public politics of his team mates is, like Clint, what drew him out. I bet he too would have preferred that his peers had not lent their celebrity to the issue, so that NFL football had remaioned 100% the province of the game and not itself a contested venue for political allegiance to a cause.
That’s what celebrity politics does. In defense of our own views, and being forced into the public exposure of celebrities’ political views, it constantly turns our entertainment venues into contests for, or against, our political allegiance. The more this infects our sports and entertainment, the more they are diminished from the talent for which we should be able to enjoy them, without the politics.
Again - be clear, I am not blaming Mr Birk. I support his view.
I just don’t like celebrity politics - period.
I wonder what his punishment will be?
Kluwe in particular needs to really ramp it down. He’s breathtakingly annoying.
NFL figures like Michael Strahan, the gap-toothed mumbler on NFL Fox, are celebrated for their pro-homosexual marriage positions. Strahan (the gap-toothed mumbler) is rewarded with a co-host spot on a morning television show.
Meanwhile Birk will have a target on his back for the rest of his career until he abjectly apologizes.
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