Ex-Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe claims he was sacked for speaking out in favor of same-sex marriage and bullied by coach who told him he would 'burn in hell with the gays'

Kluwe, who was cut from the Vikings in May, says he believes it was because he was an advocate for gay marriage

He claims coach Mike Priefer told him 'we should round up all the gays, send them to an island, and then nuke it until it glows'

He also accuses ex-head coach Leslie Frazier and general manager Rick Spielman of being cowards for failing to stand-up to Priefer

Frazier was sacked this week and with Priefer a contender to replace him, Kluwe doesn't think he should coach 'at any level'



Kluwe doesn't currently have a team and admits his revelations effectively mean his NFL career is over

In 2007 he had signed an $8.3-million contract extension through 2013 with the Vikings



Ex-Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe has said he is ‘pretty confident’ that he was cut from the team last May for being an out-spoken advocate for same-sex marriage.



Kluwe has also accused Vikings coach Mike Priefer - currently a contender to become the team’s next head coach - of being a bigot who repeatedly used homophobic language in front him and told him he would ‘wind up burning in hell with the gays.’



The player, whose playing stats were above average, believes his problems began in the fall of 2012 when he started to speak out against the Minnesota Gay Marriage Amendment which attempted to have marriage defined as ‘only a union of one man and one woman.’

Ex-Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, right, claims coach Mike Priefer, left, told him 'we should round up all the gays, send them to an island, and then nuke it until it glows'

Along with a group called Minnesotans for Marriage Equality, Kluwe helped have the amendment voted down. Same-sex marriage is now legal in Minnesota, but Kluwe says he lost his career because of his beliefs.



He has written a scathing account of his final months at the Vikings in an article posted to Deadspin entitled I Was An NFL Player Until I Was Fired By Two Cowards And A Bigot.

He savages several of his coaches, but saves his worst criticism for special teams coordinator Mike Priefer, who he claims would use anti-gay slurs around him and unfairly criticize his performance.

‘It’s my belief, based on everything that happened over the course of 2012, that I was fired by Mike Priefer, a bigot who didn’t agree with the cause I was working for, and two cowards, [head coach] Leslie Frazier and [general manager] Rick Spielman, both of whom knew I was a good punter and would remain a good punter for the foreseeable future, as my numbers over my eight-year career had shown, but who lacked the fortitude to disagree with Mike Priefer on a touchy subject matter,’ he writes.

During his final season as a Vikings player, Chris Kluwe was an outspoken advocate for same-sex marriage

Kluwe cites one example where Priefer told him in front of his teammates that 'We should round up all the gays, send them to an island, and then nuke it until it glows.'



He continued: ‘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.



'He said all this in a semi-joking tone, and I responded in kind, as I felt a yelling match with my coach over human rights would greatly diminish my chances of remaining employed.’



Kluwe also claims that Priefer instructed him to start kicking shorter punts with more hangtime because his coverage team was so slow. When Kluwe followed those instructions, Priefer gave him negative scores in his evaluation.



Kluwe, who acknowledged that his revelations would mean he will never get another NFL job, said his motivation was ‘to make sure that Mike Priefer never holds a coaching position again in the NFL, and ideally never coaches at any level.’

Cowards: Kluwe has also spoken out against General Manager Rick Spielman, left, and Leslie Frazier, right, who was fired as head coach on Monday



The Vikings sacked head coach Frazier at the end of 2012 after they failed to make the play-offs and Priefer has been described as 'the only in-house candidate with a chance' at the head-coaching job by Pioneer Press.



‘It's inexcusable that someone would use his status as a teacher and a role model to proselytize on behalf of his own doctrine of intolerance, and I hope he never gets another opportunity to pass his example along to anyone else,’ wrote Kluwe.



The Vikings have previously denied cutting Kluwe for off-field reasons. Last June, Priefer refused to go into specifics about Kluwe’s release, but said he felt 'very strongly' that the Vikings needed to part ways with the punter.



'It was more consistency and productivity,' Priefer said in a response to a question about what factors, statistical or otherwise, contributed to the decision.



Asked if Kluwe could have improved his production, Priefer said simply, 'I just felt like we needed to make a change there.'



Kluwe did make the point that team owner Zygi Wilf had voiced his support for Kluwe’s public stance.