Former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe said negotiations have stalled with the Vikings and that he will go forward with the lawsuit.
Kluwe and his lawyer, Clayton Halunen, both said they're in the process of litigation at the moment. They said the Vikings were still not interested in releasing the full report, which was a non-negotiable part of the settlement. Kluwe expects the lawsuit to be filed as early on Monday against the Vikings, claiming discrimination on the grounds of human rights, religion, defamation and "tortious interference for contractual relations."
Kluwe said along with releasing the report, he asked that the Vikings would donate $1 million to LGBT charities and also suspended special teams coach Mike Priefer, who Kluwe alleged made anti-gay remarks in a letter to Deadspin in January, for four-to-eight games under the conduct policy of the NFL and the Vikings.
"At this point it seems that there's a culture there that needs to be changed," Kluwe said on Friday. "If there was anything in the report then people need to know that. And obviously there is something in the report because the Vikings don't want to release it. If it cleared the team, they would have it out. They would've released it any time and put it out. It's pretty obvious there's something in there that they don't like."
Kluwe expressed his frustration on Twitter on Friday afternoon, claiming that "next week is open season." He's disappointed that the Vikings wanted to be transparent with the investigation but have waited seven months without even releasing the report.
"And all of a sudden, they decided they don't want to do that anymore," Kluwe said. "Frankly, I find that unacceptable.
"The NFL is a business and the Vikings are a business just like any other business. If they're going to take public funding for stadiums, if they're going to take public funding for Super Bowls, then they have an obligation to react under the appropriate state laws. They can't foster an environment that hides homophobia and bigotry because no other corporate environment will allow that."
We have reached out to the Vikings for comment and will update when we hear back.
