Chris Culliver expressed his feelings about gay athletes by saying he did not want any on his team a few days ago. The San Francisco 49ers cornerback has since apologized for his statement, and has been grilled both before and after issuing his apology. If he had never spoken up, the issue would have not erupted during the 2013 Super Bowl Week, so it may actually be a good thing that Culliver made his mistake.
Although NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has other issues on his hands, it does not exclude him from getting an official conversation going within the league about how it should be handled. The NFL Players Association would be smart to do the same, though it won't be an easy discussion to have.
Culliver is not the first athlete to speak openly about his negative feelings toward gay athletes, though he had the largest stage in American sports to voice his opinion. Former Miami Heat player Tim Hardaway said that he hated gay people in 2007. However, Hardaway made amends four years later, when he visited the University of Texas-El Paso campus to help garner support for a legal movement within the city to establish rights for gay and unmarried couples, Sports Illustrated reported.
Will Culliver find a way to redeem himself with a similar move? 49ers executive Jed York already has worked with San Francisco's LGBT community in the past says CBS Sports, so there could be way into the conversation for Culliver, should he truly stand by his apology.
Between fighting for all players' rights regardless of their sexual preference, the issue of player safety is also a concern this week, with Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed and many others speaking out on different sides of the argument.
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