Reduced Suspension after Homophobic Slur for Pro-Football Player
November 02, 2009
Larry Johnson
The National Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs said it will cut Larry Johnson’s suspension by half, according to his agent, following the running back’s string of gay slurs last week.
Johnson was suspended by the NFL until Nov. 9 after using a gay slur on his Twitter account last Sunday and repeating the term to reporters the following day. In a separate tweet he spoke disparagingly of the team’s coach Todd Haley.
The NFL suspended Johnson for poor conduct detrimental to the pro-sports organization.
"We've been working hard at it since Thursday," Peter Schaffer, Johnson’s representative, said. "We think we have a positive resolution and we'll be able to move forward in the right direction."
Johnson is obliged to stay away from the team for two weeks, but will only be docked one game’s pay, or roughly $300,000(£182,400), instead of two, NFL.com is reporting.
Speaking to the Kansas City Star, Esera Tuaolo, who came out in retirement from pro-football after playing defensive lineman for a number of teams in the 90s, spoke of a highly homophobic culture in the NFL.
"It seems like every single season I’m getting phone calls about some athlete saying a gay slur, and using the word ’gay’ and ’faggot’ and ’homo’ and ’queer’ in such a negative term," he said.
"There are gay athletes in the NFL and in baseball and in the NHL. It’s so crippling to someone who is going to work knowing there is no support in their organization. What is also crippling to an athlete is hearing slurs like that thrown around like it’s just the thing to do. When you use the term ’gay’ or ’faggot’ or ’queer’ and you use it in a negative term, it’s the same as calling a woman a (expletive) Or the same as calling an African-American the n-word. It’s demeaning to another human being. And it’s not right.
"It would be amazing if all these gay athletes would come out, and they would see how many athletes who are gay are premier players. But we live in a society that doesn’t accept us for who we are. We live in a society that views the word ’gay’ or gay person as weak."
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