San Francisco 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver has not made many friends during the week leading up to the Super Bowl. On Tuesday, Culliver made some extremely homophobic remarks that have led to an apology from him and somewhat of a public reprimand from the team. Seattle Seahawks punter Jon Ryan feels as though that is not nearly enough.
Ryan tweeted on Thursday night that he believes Culliver should be suspended by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for his comments.
If Chris Culliver isn’t suspended by Goodell then I am absolutely embarrassed to be part of a league that accepts this type of behavior.
— Jon Ryan (@JonRyan9) February 1, 2013
I highly doubt that will happen. The NFL likely doesn’t want to get into disciplining people for their beliefs, but you can see why Ryan feels so strongly about it. There are almost certainly several gay players in the NFL at the moment, so Culliver’s discriminatory comments about homosexuals are no different than a player making racist remarks about one of their teammates or opponents.
As a professional athlete who gets paid top dollar, one of Culliver’s responsibilities is to know that there’s a time and a place to express opinions like that. The week leading up to the Super Bowl in front of a national audience is neither the time, nor the place.
