Kluwe And Vikes Settle Lawsuit

((HT: KARE-TV))

Former Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe has settled his discrimination lawsuit against his former employer over his release.

Kluwe maintained that his opinions and his support for gay marriage along with the alleged behavior of special teams coordinator Mike Priefer toward Kluwe that included the use of gay slurs during practice got him released.

The Vikings are now donating to LGBTQ charities, enacting a zero tolerance policy within the franchise, and enlisting in sensitivity training as part of the settlement.

Here's the wrap on the lawsuit
"Our focus remains on maintaining a culture of tolerance, inclusion and respect, and creating the best workplace environment for our players, coaches and staff," Vikings Owner/Chairman Zygi Wilf said in a statement released during Kluwe's news conference. "As a family we have long-supported equal rights causes, including marriage equality," said Vikings Owner/President Mark Wilf in a statement. "We are glad a resolution of this matter has been reached, and we look forward to continuing our efforts to create positive awareness of these issues."

Kluwe, Vikings Reach Reported Discrimination Settlement

((HT: KARE-TV))

The attorney for former Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe says that he, his client, and the team have reached a settlement over alleged discrimination while Kluwe was on the active roster. Kluwe accused the Vikings, initially, of cutting him because of his views and his vocal demeanor over them.

Kluwe said he was suing the team over their lack of handling the alleged discriminatory behavior by special teams coach Mike Priefer. Priefer allegedly used anti-gay slurs in his coaching demeanor. The Vikings suspended Priefer for three games and made a donation to local gay advocacy groups as an initial response to Kluwe and attorney Clayton Halunen's public claims.

Halunen says that the settlement will be discussed early next week.

Lawmakers in the state of Minnesota wanted a harsher penalty for Priefer's alleged actions and it will be interesting to see if anything happens above and beyond what is currently on the table.

Vikes Priefer Suspended, Kluwe Still Looks To Sue

((HT: KSTP-TV))

Let's just say it got real in the Twin Cities with the Chris Kluwe-Mike Priefer allegations and investigations.

The Minnesota Vikings held their own investigation and have now suspended special teams coach Mike Priefer for three games- two if he successfully completes sensitivity training. Priefer, apparently, has been found out for lying about his involvement in the case from the beginning. He initially denied saying what he did to Vikings players, but has now come out admitting he said disparaging comments toward gays.

But the Vikings only say that Priefer said that kind of comment on one occasion.

Here's a quick look at the Vikes investigation


Kluwe is still planning to sue the Vikings on four separate charges next week- religious and sexual orientation discrimination, defamation and intentional interference with contractual negotiations.

He took to Twitter to drop a series of pipe bombs last night when the Vikes released their report. The comments included (and are mandatory reading, by the way):

Oooh, shall we talk about the time two very well known Vikings players were caught in a compromising situation with an underage girl?

Don't worry folks, you'll know when I'm on tilt. The Vikings clearly think turning this dirty will scare me off. Says all you need to know.

Also interesting how so many are willing to follow the Vikings' false lead with the leak about me, and not the admission of Priefer's guilt.

Interesting stat of the night. In a 29 page report, 3 pages deal with the actual subject.

Here's the paperwork from the Vikings
((HT: Deadspin))

Kluwe Investigation

Kluwe Suing Vikes Over Info Not Shared In Priefer Investigation

((HT: MyFoxTwinCities))

Former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe thinks he has "no recourse" but to sue his old employer since he and his attorney, Clayton Halunen, are saying the team never shared the information of their own investigation around slurs allegedly said by special teams coach Mike Priefer.

Here's part of the presser involving Halunen and Kluwe discussing their lack of options...


A lawsuit hasn't been filed yet, but Halunen and Kluwe are debating either state or federal court. Halunen says Kluwe has grounds to sue the team for "religious and sexual orientation discrimination, defamation and intentional interference with contractual negotiations."

In return, the Vikings released the following statement on the matter:

Since Chris Kluwe’s allegations first appeared in Deadspin on January 2, 2014, the Minnesota Vikings have taken them very seriously, which is why the team immediately retained former Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court Eric Magnuson and former U.S. Department of Justice Trial Attorney Chris Madel, two partners of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, L.L.P. (RKMC), to perform an independent review of these allegations. Magnuson and Madel were asked to thoroughly and comprehensively investigate three particular allegations by Kluwe and Kluwe’s counsel:

1) Special Teams Coordinator Mike Priefer made offensive and insensitive remarks in Kluwe’s presence.
2) Representatives of the Vikings had knowledge of these comments prior to the Deadspin article publication on January 2, 2014.
3) Kluwe’s activism was the reason for his release from the Vikings on May 6, 2013.

Magnuson, Madel and others spent nearly six months conducting an exhaustive investigation. After the Vikings were given the investigative materials from Magnuson and Madel, in order to further maintain objectivity and integrity, the team engaged a nationally-prominent law firm – Littler Mendelson P.C. – to evaluate employment law matters and provide findings and recommendations to the Vikings. Those recommendations are to be provided to the team this week.
As Magnuson and Madel confirmed today, the Vikings have never made or broken promises as Kluwe and his attorney Clayton Halunen have claimed. The Vikings have also never engaged in the various comments that Kluwe and Halunen have provided to the media over the past six months. This Thursday, July 17, the team has a meeting scheduled between Halunen and Vikings attorneys to discuss next steps.

As we have consistently communicated throughout this process, the Vikings will have further comment when the investigation is entirely complete and the team has made determinations on next steps.

Ex-Player: Former Vols Coach/Current Rutgers AD Called Us "Whores" (UPDATED: Plus More Fun At Louisville)

((HT: CNN/AC360))

As of right now, current Rutgers Athletics Director Julie Hermann still has her job...

President Robert Barchi said: "Looking at Julie’s entire record of accomplishment, which is stellar, we remain confident that we have selected an individual who will work in the best interests of all of our student athletes, our athletics teams, and the university."

“If you look at my 25-year career in athletics, I believe the record shows I am a steadfast advocate for student athletes,” Hermann said in a statement. “I intend to take that passion and hard-earned experience into my leadership role as athletic director of Rutgers University.”

Hermann was accused of calling her volleyball players in Knoxville as whores, alcoholics, and learning disabled by her players.

Craig Wolfe's piece in the Newark Star-Ledger details the conversations her former players had when they found out she was named AD at Rutgers after her long tenure at Louisville as an assistant AD...

Kelly Hanlon Dow was on the team Hermann coached in Knoxville and was interviewed by Anderson Cooper

For Hermann to "not remember" the letter composed by her players in Knoxville was a shock to them.

From Wolfe:
"I never heard any of this, never name-calling them or anything like that whatsoever." 
The word "whore," she said, is "not part of my vernacular. Not then, not now, not ever."

When asked at her introductory press conference at Rutgers about disparaging remarks that led to a settlement by one of her assistants of $150,000 at Ginger Hineline's wedding, Hermann couldn't remember being at a wedding or there being a video tape where she said what she said... ((HT: nj.com))

11 players went on the record for Wolfe's report and it is required reading- even as Hermann doesn't seem to remember much of the time that she angered her players at UTK...

PM UPDATE: The New York Times' Steve Eder is now reporting that Hermann was part in a sex discrimination suit at U of L back in 2008.

An assistant track and field coach, Mary Banker, said she went to Hermann to complain of what she said was sexist behavior and “discriminatory treatment” by the head track and field coach. Within three weeks of going to HR, Banker was fired.

The Banker case went up the legal chain in the state of Kentucky, but was eventually turned aside in appeals court. Her lawyer's are looking for the state supreme court to look at the decision.

Kearney To Claim Discrimination Vs. Texas

((HT: ESPN/Naqi))

Former Texas women's track coach Bev Kearney, who resigned January 5th after it was disclosed she had an intimate relationship with an athlete in her program back in 2002, will announce the filing of an EEOC and Texas Workforce Commission discrimination charge on Monday, according to her attorney and Naqi.

"This is the legal prerequisite to filing a discrimination lawsuit," lawyer Derek Howard said in a text message to Naqi, "and it will specifically reference the [Major] Applewhite comparative scenario."

Applewhite, UT's co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, admitted to an inappropriate consensual relationship with a student in 2009 and is still on Mack Brown's staff at present. The double-standard is what Howard seems to be chasing with their investigation and/or subsequent lawsuit.

"[The discrimination claim] will be investigated for 180 days before [we] have the right to sue," Howard said.

Kearney won six national championships in 20 years with the Longhorns and was named Big 12 Coach of the Year last season.

Here's how the story broke when the relationship was made public and Kearney resigned back in January...
((HT: KVUE-TV))

Kearney had been placed on paid administrative leave since November of 2012. The school found out about an "intimate consensual relationship" the month before and had investigated.

OSG High: HSFB Coach Speaks Out On Racial Discrimination Lawsuit

((HT: WTVM-TV Columbus))

The HQ has covered Charles Flowers since his days at Shaw High School in Columbus, Georgia. In 21 years, most in west Georgia, he compiled a record of 161-82 with a state title in 2000 after a 15-0 run. He also had 2 semi-finals and 3 quarterfinals appearances as part of a seven-year run where he had double-digit wins each time at Shaw.

It was a powerful running game that got his teams there and Flowers is now trying to run head-first into an accusation given by his home school district.

He is charging the Troup (GA) County School Board with racial discrimination as the reasoning for his dismissal in concert with the notion that he paid a mother's rent to house her two sons in an apartment in his district even though they were reported to have lived across the border in the town of Lanett, Alabama.

Flowers is speaking out for the first time
WTVM.com-Columbus, GA News Weather

Troup is his alma mater and the Board of Education filed this reply:

"We are aware that there was a complaint filed in federal court on Friday, October 19, 2012. School officials will review the complaint once it has been served and file appropriate responses in court to all allegations. It is the practice of the Troup County School System not to comment on pending litigation."

Of course it is...

Summitt Backs Jennings In Lawsuit Against UTK

((HT: WBIR-TV Knoxville))

For those of you new to this ballgame...

Anyone who covered Tennessee Volunteer athletics over the last three-and-a-half DECADES knows Debby Jennings. She was a pioneer at the school and in the posititons she held- which, eventually, led to a Associate Athletics Director for Media Relations responsibility.

In May, she was "retiring" from the posititon. Now, it has come to light that:

1) Jennings is in the process of suing the school for "unlawful discrimination and retaliation." She wants a trial by jury, monetary relief, and injunctive relief.

2) Through her attorney David Burkhalter, Jennings is also asking for a court order to require UT Athletic Director Dave Hart and and unnamed amount of others involved with the program to undergo "appropriate diversity and ethics training."

One of the affidavits in the case backing Jennings comes from UT head women's basketball coach emeritus Pat Summitt. Summitt's paperwork claims that she was initially forced out as head coach when the public perception was that she was stepping aside after her initial diagnosis of early-onset dementia.

From the affidavit concerning a meeting with Hart on March 14:

"During this one-on-one meeting, Dave Hart indicated to me that I would not be coaching the Lady Vol Basketball Team in the next school year and he planned to name Holly Warlick as the head coach. Dave Hart told me I would still have an office in Thompson-Boling Arena and my title could be Head Coach Emeritus. This was very surprising to me and very hurtful as that was a decision I would have liked to have made on my own at the end of the season after consulting with my family, doctors, colleagues, and friends and not be told this by Mr. Hart. I felt it was wrong."

But, later in the affidavit claims that in a subsequent meeting with Hart, he claimed that Summitt misinterpreted his remarks from the first meeting.

Here's the early story on the Jennings lawsuit...

The HQ is certain that this is far from over...