Minnesota Vikings And Chris Kluwe Reach Settlement

A short while ago, the Minnesota Vikings and former punter Chris Kluwe reached a settlement in his wrongful termination case, and Kluwe will no longer pursue a lawsuit against his former team.

Negotiations had been ongoing for some time, and it seemed that for awhile a lawsuit was inevitable. But a couple days before Kluwe was to file, his legal team announced that they would continur to negotiate for a settlement.

Christopher Miller of the Strib confirmed that Clayton Halunen, attorney for Chris Kluwe, had sent an email to the Star Tribune confirming that a settlement had, in fact, been reached. No details about the terms of the settlement have been announced.

In January, Kluwe alleged he was released by the Vikings because of his political activism supporting marriage equality in the state of Minnesota.  The Vikings contend that his activism had nothing to do with his release, and it was due to his declining performance. Kluwe also alleged he was subjected to a hostile workplace environment by special teams coach Mike Priefer, who used homophobic slurs in front of Kluwe and other teammates.

An independent investigation was conducted, and in the course of that investigation it was uncovered that Priefer did use a homophobic slur. However, the night the Vikings released a partial report of the investigation, an unhappy Kluwe went on Twitter to voice his displeasure over a partial release of the report as opposed to a full release.

So it appears that this episode has come to an end, and as soon as we have details on the settlement, we'll pass them along.