Chris Kluwe settles dispute with Vikings, won’t sue for discrimination

Chris Kluwe and the Minnesota Vikings have reached a settlement over a dispute that could have resulted in a lawsuit by the former NFL punter over the terms of his release by his former team.

Instead, the team will donate to several charitable groups that support gay rights, implement sensitivity training within the organization and set up a national symposium on LGBT tolerance in Minneapolis next year.

Kluwe will receive no money from the settlement.

“This has never been about money,” Kluwe said Tuesday as part of a series of tweets.

The Vikings confirmed the resolution of the matter Tuesday with a statement on their website.

“As a family we have long supported equal-rights causes, including marriage equality,” Vikings owner and President Mark Wilf said. “We are glad a resolution of this matter has been reached, and we look forward to continuing our efforts to create positive awareness of these issues.”

In a letter posted on Deadspin in January, Kluwe alleged several instances of anti-gay conduct by special teams coordinator Mike Priefer after the punter started publicly voicing support for gay rights. An internal investigation found that Priefer had made anti-gay comments during practice but that Kluwe had not been wrongfully terminated.

But Kluwe alleged that the Vikings had released him based on his pro-gay views and threatened to sue the team for discrimination if it didn’t release the full 150-page report from the investigation. He tweeted Tuesday: “No, the report won’t be made public. Our worry there was that there were systemic problems being covered up, but there weren’t.”

He continued in two more tweets: “Then it became, do I want this to be about me? (And prove the haters right) Or do we try to do a lot of good for a lot of other people. We’ve chosen to help those who need it, in a way that hopefully will set an example moving forward for others to follow.”

Twitter: @chewkiii