Chris Culliver comments

[GoBruins17]

As you learned all too well from my Patriot game anxiety - I live in New England. Maine to be specific. And I have a good friend/co-worker who was very active on our Yes on 1 campaign. This was our gay marriage bill...and while it didn't effect me or my marriage directly, I was unbelievably outspoken about it (in favor of).

He is an avid Patriot fan, and he said that he is very torn on who to cheer for. I had been trying to work him over to our side from many angles. Honestly, he's the only Pats fan I know NOT rooting for us. I told him I can't understand Patriot fans cheering for Baltimore. They've had a nasty rivalry lately. You've got Ray the murderer. You've got Bernard Pollard who has devastated the Patriots with impact injuries (he took out Brady in 08, Welker in 09, Gronkowski last year, and he murdered Ridley last week).

One of those angles that I was hoping tipped the scales was the 49ers' endorsement of It Gets Better...

I can't BELIEVE I haven't been sent an outraged link from this yet!!

[Kyle916]

He is still an adult no arguing, but I'm guessing by your location you grew up in the Bay area, were of course it's MUCH more acceptable than it is in many other places in the world (like Philly where he's from) so you and others need to take that into account. It's just a fact, he made a really stupid comment, and I 100% agree he shouldn't have made it. I'm not forgiving him for it, he made it and he should take the blame for it. However, I at least based on my personal experience think he'll grow out of it, and boy did he just learn a lesson! One your darn sure we won't forget, because as well as the negative media attention you can bet your Harb's had a conversation with him about it.

I think it has to do with the way student athletes are brought up starting as early as HS. If you are a big time HS player you can skate by. If you are a big time college player you definitely skate by. Not claiming all athletes are uneducated and don't take their education seriously, but when all you have to do is play a high level of sports and get the tutoring to pass your classes, it's easy to see a lot of players not developing thought out world views.

Just my opinion though.

[lincecum=future]

I would have to think the coaching staff sat the team down before media day and prep them on what to say. Whether if I agree with what he said or not its a stupid thing to stir up distractions a couple days before the super bowl.

[DownSouth49er]

I would have to think the coaching staff sat the team down before media day and prep them on what to say. Whether if I agree with what he said or not its a stupid thing to stir up distractions a couple days before the super bowl.

Especially when the media is looking for a negative story to run with during this time. Just the other day when reading about Kwame Harris on Pro Football Talk, Florio opened his write-up with, "Since the current members of the San Francisco 49ers are providing us with nothing interesting to discuss, a former member of the team has helped fill the void." The media is looking for that kind of crap and for him to just go up there and say what he said is exactly what they wanted. I hope he learns and others on the team take notice and just shutup about topics like that. Just tell them flat out I have no opinion on it and I'm here to talk about the games. If that answer isn't good enough for them then just ignore the pricks. I hate the media!!

[SJearthquakes21]

i think its an incredibly ignorant old fashion way of looking at things the way he said it,

i mean yeah its okay we all have our views and its okay to disagree with others but at the same time you gotta be way more sensitive to the situation, specially playing in san francisco where there are more openly gay people out and where the city is more liberal to those people.

[1hardcore]

Why can't players be smart ???

It's ****en Super Bowl ffs!!!!

If somebody asks question like that ... slough if it off !!! next ****en question!!!.

[bigmac8675]

****ing Culliver... he came off as an idiot and a bigot. He will be lucky to not be disciplined heavily by the team.

[rapjuicer06]

You can tell that apology was written up for him. I like Cully, but man, he just came off as a straight up dumbass. I mean look at what team you play for, look at the surrounding area...what an idiot

[dulcetpine]

He is proof that while progress has been made, there is still a long way to go which is why you can't ever stop. Perhaps this will be a wake up call to him and he will grow up and expand his world view a little bit, or perhaps he won't.

I find it funny however that when he spoke the transcript read like someone who speaks English as a third language but his official apology read like someone who passed the bar exam. I personally think apologies that aren't rendered in the actual words of the individual -- no matter how poor the grammar are just superficial and cannot be taken seriously.

[NinerHomer49]

Very idiotic on his part! People that make a big deal about homosexuals are just ignorant. If they aren't invading your booty or using a strap-on on you...what's the big fuss about?

Normal everyday circumstances...you're right. Locker room with a bunch of dude...not so much.

[macc]

You can tell that apology was written up for him. I like Cully, but man, he just came off as a straight up dumbass. I mean look at what team you play for, look at the surrounding area...what an idiot

haha no doubt, he's playing in basically the gay capital of the US and he puts that out there. He's young, if he's homophobic he just needs to keep that to himself.

[asandhu23]

Can we get the title changed though? Lame attempt to make something 1000x worse than it was.

I chose the title yahoo had on their page.

[WestCoastSportz]

How many of us, at 24 years old, have said much worse things than that? How many times did you call your friend a "F*G" or "F*GG*T"? Or refer to something as "gay" because you didn't like it? I would expect someone at his age, with a certain level of ignorance. Lord knows I was when I was that young. The big difference is, I wasn't in the media's eye. Its certainly is wrong, but I'm not going to crucify a guy that didn't articulate his opinion better. Some people have problems with gay folks and thats their choice. I'm not one of those people. Have a few in my office (lesbian and gay) that I hang out with after work to grab some drinks with and they're the funnest folks I've been around. Culliver certainly isn't a native San Franciscan and being from North Carolina probably didn't open his eyes much on the situation. Sure he apologized, but I'm sure he still has the same opinions. What he's really sorry about is that he blurted it out on national TV.

[Kyle916]

I chose the title yahoo had on their page.

That is not what Yahoo! has:

"Crude Message to Gay Players"

"Player's scorching message to gay athletes"

"Niners CB says openly gay players would not be welcomed on the team"

[Infamous916]

Cully is dumb for making the statement, but I'm sure more than half the NFL players would agree with him (just not publicly).