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Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe retains legal counsel

Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe averaged 44.4 on punts in eight seasons. (Tom Dahlin/Getty Images)

Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe averaged 44.4 on punts in eight seasons. (Tom Dahlin/Getty Images)

Former Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe retained legal counsel after he claimed last week the team released him because of his views on same-sex marriage, reports Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Kluwe also said that Vikings special-teams coordinator Mike Priefer used homophobic language during the 2012 season. He also called Vikings general manager Rick Spielman and former coach Leslie Frazier "cowards."

Kluwe wrote the article that was posted on Deadspin.com.

BURKE: Ex-Vikings punter Chris Kluwe rips ‘coward’ Leslie Frazier, ‘bigot’ Mike Priefer

The Vikings said that they will investigate the claims, while Preifer denied making homophobic comments.

"I want the truth to come out from the investigation, not in litigation," Kluwe said in a statement released Monday.

Kluwe was released by Minnesota last May.  The team says it was because of football reasons.

"Chris Kluwe stands up for what he believes is right, even if it costs him personally to do so," Minneapolis lawyer Clayton Halunen, who will represent Kluwe, said in a statement. "It's obvious to me, as it should be to most thinking people familiar with the situation, that Chris paid a steep price for speaking out in favor of same-sex marriage rights in 2012 while he was a Vikings player. Ultimately it may have cost him both his job with the Vikings and his career as an NFL player, along with much emotional anguish over what he believed to be a kind of personal attack on him for his views on a vital issue of human rights.