I find this post distracting.

Dom -- there are many times I think you're an asshole and a hack. Not today. Job well done in holding the Seahawks to account today.

@106

Oh, that's so sweet and classy. Good of you to take the high road and fess up. Bless your heart.

Dominic--- Are they planning on releasing an Official Statement on the matter?

Part of being a "professional" anything is concentrating on your job, being able to overcome the distractions that get in the way of doing your job.

If 54 men can't concentrate on X's and O's because someone on their team just took the brave step of saying who he is as a person, then those 54 men are not professionals. They can't do their job right, and are not mature enough to understand their responsibilities. The end.

I mean 53 men, not 54. Sorry. Didn't want to make the job harder.

Well congratulations Dominic. You finally forced a reluctant "yes" out of her for the "unequivocal" record.

Talk about distractions! What is Chris Clemons' opinion of this?

http://espn.go.com/dallas/nba/story/_/id…

I don't expect you to acknowledge this since it appears you're out to incite a reactionary mob rather than report events, but "Right now we have one statement from the Seahawks about openly gay players: "Not welcome in Seattle." was a patently false statement from the beginning.

Seahawks QB Russell Wilson said this more than two months ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0_RzRaqh…

Of course those comments aren't "controversial" enough so they aren't worth reporting I guess. And the whole "she refused to provide a phone number or an e-mail for the fans to comment" thing is also patent nonsense; the Fan Feedback form is easily accessible at seahawks.com - a form I've used a few times and have always received a prompt response: http://fanfeedback.seahawks.com/seahawks…

"Finally, Seahawks Say They "Don't Agree" With Player's Anti-Gay Comments and Would Welcome an Openly Gay Player. Posted by Dominic Holden on Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 5:47 PM"

Wow, so the Seahawks or Clemons specifically said they would not welcome an openly gay player?

Probably could have gone differently if it were another PR person who was on call yesterday. Poor PR lady. She probably never thought, bless her heart, that her duties working for an NFL team, of all things, would include her having to disavow a comment critical of openly gay people. Times are changing.

Seems pretty clear that there are certain big, strong "straight" football players that are scared to death, totally intimidated and WITHOUT A DOUBT, absolutely lose their abilities to remain professional and mature in the presence of big strong "gay" football players. SO ATTENTION ALL COACHES! I SAY THOSE BIG STRONG GAY GUYS ARE MY KIND OF FOOTBALL PLAYERS!

@118 Ry coolage

Ahhh ok, so in order to combat anti-gay bullies, lets post personal information and intimidate him in a way we all personally despise. Could you possibly sink any lower?

rv cooledge nice job, leaking a player address, do you think that maybe harm may come of this you stupid piece of shit. Why dont you put your address in your blog so chris can come over and kick your stupid ass or maybe yet... I will do it for him WOW ICANNOT BELIEVE HOW COLLASALLY STIPID YOU REALLY ARE, SIR YOU ARE THE PIECE OF SHIT.

Good (if belatedly so) job, Seahawks, and good job, Dom!

obviously not a real address dumbass

The Stranger seeks to censor anyone that has an opinion that doesn't agree with theirs. I think publications should be open to independent thought without fear of reprisal. It seems strange to me that a liberal publication like the Stranger favors censorship.

dmanjam @125, you don't understand what censorship is or how it works.

The Stranger has no power to censor Chris Clemons or the Seahawks. The only people the Stranger could possibly censor are Stranger writers, and then it is just called editing.

This community is unbelievable. They fight alleged bullying with more bullying. Perhaps the LGBT community should do a little research into "human nature". A racial difference compared with a sexual difference in a LOCKER ROOM of all places, aren't exactly equal.

@92 Oh you have tickets to Sunday's game do you? Can you enlighten me as to who the Seahawks are playing on Sunday?

It's a good thing you guys all cancelled your season tickets otherwise you might not have gotten your sad asses kissed with lip service.

"I pointed out that the Seahawks have never disapproved of anything Clemons said or staked out a different position. "Wow. Bless your heart," she repeated four times."

Reminds me of the people who say "have a blessed day" through clenched teeth, turning a religious observation and sincerely pleasant statement into "Fuck. You."

The Seahawks need a new rep.

I find it ironic the LGBT community chooses to fight imagined intolerance and intimidation with actual intolerance and intimidation. What a bunch of misguided hypocrites.

@130: Being intolerant of racism, bigotry and hate is a good thing. There's no hypocrisy there, fly back to Stormfront, nobody's biting your bullshit.

This has to be the least thought out and researched article I've read all year. I hate the hawks just as much as the next guy but this is ridiculous. The author is trying to make the whole organization look not accepting of gays when other players have openly told media they wouldn't care if a player was gay or not. The Clem quote was only one part of what he said and he make perfect sense if The full interview was posted. This is awful reporting that's just here to get an angry mob to visit their site. Very very poor journalism guys, be smarter next time.

@131: "There was nothing homophobic about the comments. Clem was speaking from a team perspective and was he wrong?"

Yes. If teammates will stand behind football players who got arrested but not a person coming out of the closet, this shit is nasty and homophobic.

"I live in Chicago's gay community (Halsted) and I support equal rights for all, but to jump on this as if something TRULY negative was said is utter garbage. Good luck with your future garbage articles and reports, I'll never visit this pathetic site again."

Your sports life obviously comes first before actually giving a darn about those who live around you. Supporting rights should also mean that it wouldn't matter if someone came out or not, if such a thing would make you angry, you should re-examine why people find you homophobic.

@undead ayn rand:
YOU did.

@135: Calling you on your bullshit doesn't mean I think you're sincere. I know you're a coward who deserves to be treated poorly for being a hatemonger.

It's not hypocrisy, you deserve to be viewed as a bad person because of how you treat others, you weren't born to be as terrible as you turned out.

@131 When Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese position player in the majors in 2001 it was a HUGE distraction. Dozens of foreign reporters tracking his every move, national media at every stop, biggest media circus ever.

If I remember correctly, Ichiro won MVP, Rookie of the Year and the team won 116 games--the most ever.

@130 I find it ironic that Clemons said being a distraction hurts the team and then he went and became a HUGE distraction just as the Seahawks were being lauded as perhaps the favorites to win the Super Bowl next year.

Reminds me of when Terrell Owens accused Tony Romo of being a distraction by dating Jessica Simpson. Gee, I can't remember, didn't Terrell Owens turn out to be the one poisoning team unity? I forget...

@undead ayn rand:

Aren't you making a lot of baseless assumptions about me? And isn't that the very thing that you purport to be against? Isn't there enough REAL hatred and bigotry in the world for you, without having to read those things into the words and deeds of everybody you encounter? It's an incredibly sad world that you live in.

I sent the Seahawks facebook page a message yesterday after reading this article. As far as I can tell, this is their official facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/Seahawks. Here is my message and the Seahawks response:

ME (Amy)-
It would be nice to have a team support the community that's supporting you.

"Seahawks Say They Are Fine With Player's Anti-Gay Comments | Slog
slog.thestranger.com
It's been a week since Seattle Seahawks defensive end Chris Clemons blew up sports pages and gay blogs when he said a gay player coming..."

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS-
Amy - We appreciate you sharing your thoughts. We disagree with statements made by Chris Clemons on twitter. His views go against our core values as an organization. The Seahawks support LGBT initiatives and take pride in being one of the first teams to participate in LGBT’s anti-bullying campaign in August 2011. http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…. The Seahawks organization is guided by overall principles of acceptance and understanding that help us create a culture of respect, equality and inclusiveness both on and off the field. It is our goal to use these core principles and our commitment to passion, character and excellence to empower change within our community. We, as an organization and as individuals, represent and respect a wide range of human differences, personal experiences and cultural backgrounds. Thank you again for reaching out to us.

"It Gets Better: Mariners, Seahawks, Sounders, Storm | Slog
slog.thestranger.com
From the press release: The four major professional sports teams in Seattle have joined together to create a video message for the "It Gets..."

@140, Amy,

Wow. Someone with a lucid, reasoned response. Are You sure that you're on the right website? From the author on down, people have spouted hatred towards the Seahawks. Why? I can only assume that they hate the Seahawks, or felt attacked by Chris Clemons' comments.

When I first read his comment, I was pissed. Then I read his follow-up comments. I only read four more, but it explained his position. I wish that he'd made his comments to a reporter rather than on the 140 characters of twitter. (Personally, I feel that twitter is aptly named. It's followed by twits.)

Clemons' first comment was moronic. He later explained that he isn't homophobic, but the act of coming out in a press conference is selfish. Coming out would probably be decisive in the locker room. After all, people are afraid of the unknown. But then again, no one will know until it happens. I wouldn't of had to explain this if people had read his subsequent tweets (Go to the NFC West blog on espn.com to see them.)

I do agree with his comment about it being a selfish act. It's not a selfish act to live your life the way that you want. But it is selfish to let it slip to the media that you might have a press conference to come out. Why not just do it? Why not take your boyfriend to team headquarters, or go out on a date in a very public place? If you want to get the questions out of the way, call a local reporter and tell them that you're gay? Do it at the weekly presser. Do it in a way that calls attention to the act, and not the person. By letting it leak to the media that someone "might" come out, it's created a distraction. Then you get a media whore like Chris Kluwe commenting. All the leak did was take an act that many want to make and turn it into a media circus.

For anyone that's followed the Seahawks, we know how long it takes for them to announce anything. It took them a week to announce a signing. Whenever I hear of something that the Seahawks have done, I don't believe it until it's posted on their website. Native Americans have been ridiculed for being stupid. When in actuality, the would think through a response, in order to give the best answer. The Seahawks take this ideal to heart. If there is any team that "looks before it leaps" it's Seattle. They won't comment on anything until they've thoroughly investigated it. It's sad that too many people find a measured response to be too slow. Even in the courts, if there's a video of someone committing a crime, they're still innocent until proven guilty. I guess talking to Clemons, and finding out if he's a bigoted lunatic, or not is just too hard for the instant gratification media.

The "author" repeatedly speaks out about how the Seahawks neither condemn nor condone Clemons' comments. How they don't support gay rights. Yet he posts their statement. It says that they do support gay rights. I don't know if the "author" was so single-minded that he couldn't see that, or that he can't understand legalese. I hat legalese. I wish people would just come out and say what they mean. Unfortunately, too many people are too sensitive, so we have to couch what we say, in order to not offend. If the statement would've been monosyllabic, maybe the "author" would've been able to understand it.

Jim K

@139: "Aren't you making a lot of baseless assumptions about me? And isn't that the very thing that you purport to be against? Isn't there enough REAL hatred and bigotry in the world for you, without having to read those things into the words and deeds of everybody you encounter? It's an incredibly sad world that you live in."

All I know is what you put forth. If you disagreed with my observation or I was somehow mistaken, you had ample time to point out how I was wrong instead of confirming that you're a cowardly bigot. Loathing gays is still hate, and there's no need to tolerate it simply because you support other bigots and (I assume) not burning crosses on lawns.

You know who's selfish? Who's a distraction that divides the team? Terrell Owens, man had one of the biggest ego's in the NFL. When Tony Romo wasnt throwing him the ball, he would go to twitter and bitch bitch bitch about it, pissing off fans, pissing off team mates, fucking up any momentum the team might have had, etc, etc.

Tim Tebow was also somewhat disruptive, always talking about god, praying on the fucking field and he was never a good QB, piss poor accuracy, but he got a shitload of free press. Interviews O plenty! Sold shitload of jerseys (got a nice bonus for that too) and im sure it pissed off alot of Denver players that year by hogging all the press. Alot of people in Professional Sports as well as Acting will have massive ego's, it just goes with the territory. Being selfish and disruptive on the set can cause production to shut down for a day when a star fees upstages and walks off.

Now I know this isn't exactly the same as coming out of the closet, but its a sure bet if there are any gay players now, the other players are aware of it and most probably dont have a problem with it. Its possible that they chose to keep their sexuality from the press, just to not rock the boat because your stay in the NFL isn't going to last forever. 30 is old in this game, 40 is extremely rare. Some may focus on doing their job, kick some ass, then retire at 32 and then come out the closet, which at that point, most would not care.

@undead ayn rand:

So if I understand you correctly, if I were to agree with your opinion, I wouldn't be a cross burning, gay loathing and cowardly bigot? Your myopic view of the world precludes an obvious possiblility that renders your assumptions as baseless and bigoted as those that you think you're taking a stand against. I'll leave it to you to figure out what that possibility is.

For the record, my original comment wasn't aimed at you and therefore not a disagreement with your opinion. Until you singled me out for one of your attacks, I wasn't even aware of your existence.

My criticism of the LGBT community was more an expression of my disappointment in it's choice of battles to take up as well as the tactics it employed to achieve it's ends. Imagining anti-gay comments where none exist will only diminish the ability of the LGBT community to fight anti-gay comments when and where they truly do exist.

Lastly, while "fighting fire with fire" may be a reflexive reaction, it puts you at risk of becoming the very thing that you abhor. In this particular case, using intolerance and intimidation to fight intolerance and intimidation does indeed make one a hypocrite. Me? I wouldn't be so quick to cede the high ground.

Fire Chris Clemmons.

Chris Clemons said nothing wrong!!!! He wasn't bashing the gay community at all. He even said, "I'm not against anyone but I think it's a selfish act. They just trying to make themselves bigger than the team." In fact the guy who said he was coming out is getting cut. Did Clemons say gay people should not play football? No. He wasn't anti gay...This is just slander on Clemons. I also remember a thing called the first amendment....Stop calling the political correctness police to save you. Clemons made an opinion on a PLAYER not a community. Where's the outrage when Culliver (Out of the 49ers) was actually making anti-gay comments? Bunch of hypocrites....Stop being overly offended and quit taking people's words out of context.

@144: You again miss the point. You're disliked because of how you treat other people, not how you were born.

@147: ".Stop calling the political correctness police to save you. Clemons made an opinion on a PLAYER not a community. Where's the outrage when Culliver (Out of the 49ers) was actually making anti-gay comments? Bunch of hypocrites..."

Man, bigots really are too stupid to understand what the word "hypocrite" means. (It does not mean that gays have to take abuse from bigots, people of color have to happily tolerate racism or be accused of "calling the PC police" when they call an asshole an asshole etc.)

@146: " I am pro-gay/marriage but I think the time and resources would be better spent on trying inform people that gays are not the new "boogy" man."

This is a case where people are promoting that idea, that coming out will not be seen as a "disruptive" act because there's nothing that a person should find distracting (as much as any straight guy's emotional life story, at least.) Players had better stop giving important life information in their interviews and quips to use in game footage if revealing that they're gay is enough to destroy a team's camaraderie.

@143 re: T.O. - Exactly who I was thinking about yesterday, when considering what a real distraction looks like.

Yep. Because NOTHING threatens the Hawks and their ticket sales/network deals more than a bunch of effete fags and rug munchers disliking them! I mean, football fans are a bastion for the movement to create favored citizen status for faggots and dykes!

I could care less what some young athlete does with young women of his acquaintance, provided he keeps his mouth shut about it like a gentleman. I could care less what some young athlete does with young men of his acquaintance on the same terms. I could care less about the opinions they hold on politics or law or so called gender equality. Clemons is an amazing football player, and that's all I expect him to be. Same goes for actors and all other celebrities mouthing off about stuff outside their area of expertise. And especially for deviant no talent trash like Savage and all his boytoy so called writers pretending to be journalists.

Go back to watching figure skating and soccer and the home decoration and fashion channels and leave real sports to real men you sick pervert Holden. Thanks. Thanks very much.

@ the repulsive Seattleblues and Kinison: if you think the Seahawks can make money without fags and dykes in Seattle paying taxes to finance their precious, pure heterosexual locker rooms, then I have some shit Florida swamp land to sell you. (Plus, the only time I get to see the Seahawks play from a suite is when my fag lawyer invites me. So if you think fags and dykes don't buy tickets, you're also dumb asses.)

@151: I'm glad you've revealed yourself as an insincere troll, finally.

Is Dominic a dentist? He should be. That was awfully like pulling teeth. Good job!

did @PeteCarroll ever answer the question about whether it's ok to have a gay player on the seahawks? if not, shouldn't you still be pressing this issue, dominic?

they are talking about been bully but the gay people or gay activist are the bullies.accept me accept me gay people say and accept the way i think how about if i believe a man and a woman is the right thing people said you are not right ,i have to accept the way everyone think but now i can not said what i think where are my rights. dont be pushing gay,gay,gay on everyone thoat .dont go against who create you that is a man and woman .if you are gay fine ,but to accept that you are gay and gay marriage thats another thing.my thing is to love everyone but not to love what everyones do . and one last thing, your personal sexual preferences does not have to be part of sports,SPORTS ARE SPORTS , in espn when they are talking about a player they dont said there personal preferences is about there stats thats why they have \People's magazine know when to separate the stuff.

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