Former Minnesota Vikings Punter Arrested for Anti-MAGA Protest

Story by

Story by
Former Minnesota Vikings Punter Arrested for Anti-MAGA Protest

Chris Kluwe - Minnesota Vikings — Thomas Campbell-Imagn Images

Anthony Varriano · Minnesota Sports Fan

Thu, Feb 20, 2025 ·

4 min read

Former Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe arrested

Former Minnesota Vikings punter and known advocate for same-sex marriage , Chris Kluwe, took issue with the plaque and protested its approval during a Huntington Beach City Council meeting, Tuesday.

MAGA stands for trying to erase trans people from existence. MAGA stands for re-segregation and racism. MAGA stands for censorship and book bans. MAGA stands for firing air traffic controllers while planes are crashing. MAGA stands for firing the people overseeing our nuclear arsenal. MAGA stands for firing military veterans and those serving them at the VA, including canceling research on veteran suicide. MAGA stands for cutting funds to education, including for disabled children. MAGA is profoundly corrupt, unmistakably anti-democracy, and, most importantly, MAGA is explicitly a Nazi movement. You may have replaced a swastika with a red hat, but that is what it is.

Kluwe then said he would "now engage in the time-honored, American tradition of peaceful, civil disobedience." He approached the city council, was intercepted by a police officer and arrested. He spent four hours in custody, according to the OC Register . Kluwe was complimentary of the arresting officers and further explained his intentions.

This was done not with the intention of changing the council's mind, because I don't think those minds can be changed. It was done so that people who are watching and people who will watch understand that this is important enough to get arrested for. That it's important to stand up and speak truth to power and to do so in a way that other people can emulate. A public library is supposed to be welcoming to anyone who wants to come in and check out a book and learn. And so this attempt to politicize it with an explicit MAGA reference on the plaque shows that they don't care about the public library. They care about making a propaganda statement.

Kluwe alleges MN Vikings cut him over his advocacy efforts

Back in 2012, Chris Kluwe was basically a league-average punter based on net yards per punt (including blocked punts). That wasn't good enough to keep his job given his $1.35 million contract . The Minnesota Vikings released him after drafting Jeff Locke in the fifth round of the 2013 NFL Draft. Locke ended up being slightly below league average in his rookie season. He was paid less than $590,000 .

Rk	Player	Age	Team	G	Pnt	Yds	Y/P	RetYds	NetYds	NY/P▼	Lng	TB	Inside 20	% Inside 20	Blocked	Awards
1	Andy Lee	30	SFO	16	67	3226	48.1	249	2897	43.2	66	4	36	53.7	0	AP-1
2	Thomas Morstead	26	NOR	16	74	3707	50.1	391	3196	43.2	70	6	20	27.0	0	PB , AP-2
3	Britton Colquitt	27	DEN	16	67	3099	46.3	203	2822	42.1	67	4	27	40.3	0
4	Kevin Huber	27	CIN	16	76	3540	46.6	210	3190	42.0	69	7	33	43.4	0
5	Brandon Fields	28	MIA	16	73	3666	50.2	484	3051	41.8	67	9	29	39.7	0
6	Dave Zastudil	34	ARI	16	112	5209	46.5	415	4634	41.4	70	8	46	41.1	0
7	Bryan Anger	24	JAX	16	91	4353	47.8	495	3758	40.8	73	5	31	34.1	1
8	Sam Koch	30	BAL	16	83	3911	47.1	383	3388	40.8	60	7	28	33.7	0
9	Jon Ryan	31	SEA	16	65	2963	45.6	252	2651	40.8	73	3	30	46.2	0
10	Dustin Colquitt	30	KAN	16	83	3887	46.8	362	3385	40.8	71	7	45	54.2	0	PB
11	Matthew Bosher	25	ATL	16	60	2847	47.5	241	2526	40.7	63	4	22	36.7	2
12	Mike Scifres	32	SDG	16	81	3914	48.3	362	3412	40.6	66	7	30	37.0	3
13	Donnie Jones	32	HOU	16	88	4150	47.2	483	3567	40.5	66	5	28	31.8	0
14	Brett Kern	26	TEN	16	81	3855	47.6	405	3350	40.4	71	5	30	37.0	2
15	Pat McAfee	25	IND	16	73	3500	47.9	375	2985	40.3	64	8	26	35.6	1
16	Johnny Hekker	22	STL	16	82	3756	45.8	402	3274	39.9	68	4	22	26.8	0
17	Chris Kluwe	31	MIN	16	72	3237	45.0	341	2856	39.7	59	2	18	25.0	0

In 2012, Kluwe voiced his support of same-sex marriage on behalf of the group Minnesotans for Marriage Equality, a group highly regarded in the LGBTQ+ community. Kluwe also wrote an op-ed for Deadspin about his experience as an active player/advocate, alleging that then-Vikings special teams coach Mike Priefer starting using homophobic language in his presence.

The Vikings suspended Priefer because of the allegations. Kluwe alleged Priefer interrupted teammates jokingly discussing Kluwe leading the Pride parade by saying, "We should round up all the gays, send them to an island, and then nuke it until it glows."

According to Kluwe's allegations, then-Vikings head coach Leslie Frazier twice asked the punter to stop advocating for same-sex marriage until he was "overruled" by Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf. A resulting independent investigation found no truth in those allegations.

The investigators found that Priefer made a single homophobic comment to Kluwe, and according to long snapper Cullen Loeffler, he made the statement because Kluwe and Loeffler were not focused on football during practice.

The investigation also didn't find evidence that anybody from the franchise tried to stop Kluwe from engaging in his activism, and the investigators said that "other than the statement allegedly made by Priefer, the record is devoid of any support for the contention that the team harbored a homophobic hostile work environment."

Chris Kluwe hit free agency in 2013 where he signed with the Raiders, but did not make the team out of camp. Kluwe's Bluesky account bio reads: "Troublemaker extraordinaire." While his football career is long over, his advocacy/troublemaking continues.