Story: Chiefs' Morton says Millen's remark 'demeaning' KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Once again, Detroit Lions president Matt Millen opened his mouth out of frustration -- and created controversy. Millen, rebuffed in his efforts to congratulate Chiefs receiver Johnnie Morton following Kansas City's 45-17 victory over Detroit on Sunday, responded by calling the former Lion a "f*****." According to a report in Monday's editions of the Kansas City Star, Millen claimed he was angry that Morton, who has criticized him in the past following his 2001 release by Detroit, ignored him after the game. It was then that Millen made the remark. The sequence of events was confirmed by Morton. "What happened was I was just walking by," Morton told The Star. "I wasn't going to say anything to him. I walked past him and he said, 'Hey, Johnnie.' I ignored him. And then he said, 'Nice talking to you.' And I said, 'Kiss my a--.' " According to the report, Millen then yelled "You f*****! Yeah, you heard me. You f*****!" at Morton. Both Chiefs public relations staffer Patrick Herb and 61 Sports radio reporter Rhonda Moss told The Star that they heard Millen's comments. "He said it in front of everybody," Herb told the newspaper. "There were plenty of witnesses." Morton apparently did not hear Millen's remark when it was said. When it was relayed to him afterward, Morton expressed disappointment. "I apologize for what I said, but I never expected anything like that [response]," Morton told The Star. "What he said is demeaning and bigoted. Jeremy Shockey got in trouble for saying it about a coach [Bill Parcells], and now we have a president of a team making statements like that. It's totally unacceptable. I have gay friends, and I don't even joke around with them like that." Shockey, a tight end for the New York Giants, reportedly called Dallas Cowboys coach Bill Parcells "a homo" in a magazine interview this summer. Shockey claimed that he had been misquoted, later apologized and was not fined. Millen issued a statement later Sunday: "After the game, I was passing the Chiefs' locker room when I stopped to congratulate some of their players," the statement read. "I was talking with Vonnie Holliday, Trent Green, Tony Gonzalez and one of the coaches, Joe Vitt. I wished all those guys the best and good luck in the playoffs. "I then saw Johnnie, and I tried to wish him the best and congratulate him as well. When I called out to him, he just kept walking and then made a derogatory remark toward me, which really upset me. Unfortunately, I retaliated with a derogatory term directed toward Johnnie. "I apologize if I offended anyone. It certainly was not meant to do anything other than express my frustration and disappointment." This isn't the first time Millen has drawn attention with off-the-cuff remarks. He was widely panned last season for referring to one of his players as a "devout coward" during a radio interview. Wonder how much Millen will get fined for this. I doubt he will lose his job over this.
This belongs in the Hangout... there's no debate here... Millen = good player, bad executive and in this case the qualities that led to the former also lead to the latter.
Yea, I thought that it might be more of a hangout thread. However, I placed it here because of one reason: is what Millen said bad enough to make him lose his job or not? If his remark was a racial one instead of an anti-gay one, then yea, it is a no-brainer that he loses his job. I am just wondering when we will see the day that saying something anti-gay is equivalent to saying something racial. Not trying to be controversial here, but the fact that the 2 are not (apparently) equivalent makes me wonder if gays really have the same rights that they are always trying to obtain.
http://www.foxsports.com/content/view?contentId=1954836 ALLEN PARK, Mich. (AP) — Detroit Lions president Matt Millen apologized Monday for using a derogatory term for gays in a heated exchange with Kansas City receiver Johnnie Morton. Millen was talking with Kansas City players and coaches outside their locker room after the Chiefs' 45-17 victory Sunday when he ran into Morton, cut by Millen after the 2001 season. Millen, also the Lions' general manager, said he congratulated Morton but was greeted with an insult from the player. "Unfortunately, I retaliated with a derogatory term directed toward Johnnie," Millen said in a statement. "I apologize if I offended anyone. It was certainly not meant to do anything other than express my frustration and disappointment." Morton apologized for his part in the exchange, but was disappointed by Millen's choice of words. "What he said is demeaning and bigoted," Morton told The Kansas City Star. "Jeremy Shockey got in trouble for saying it about a coach (Bill Parcells), and now we have a president of a team making statements like that. It's totally unacceptable. I have gay friends, and I don't even joke around with them like that." Last summer, Shockey called Parcells a "homo" in a New York magazine article. Millen has been the focus of several controversies in his three years heading the Lions, who are 4-10 this season. He was fined $200,000 this summer by the NFL because he didn't follow the league's minority hiring policy when he hired coach Steve Mariucci. During the 2002 season, Millen called an unidentified player a "devout coward." Millen later apologized.
You have got to love this statement. Morton is not stupid, and this is designed to wreak the most havoc with Millen's "career." Heh heh.
An executive with any type of organization (except maybe the KKK) would be fired for this statement. He has to go.
With credit to a caller to the Jim Rome show today, it is funny how really no one bats an eye at Millen becoming a GM, but when Deion talked about being the head coach of the Falcons, people went crazy. Neither one had any experience in that area before then...
remember when he was broadcasting for fox, there were all these rumors at the time about him becoming a gm for some team (not just the lions, but others). there must be something he's done that showed some owners that he could be a gm. obviously you dont really hear these types of rumors about all broadcasters and former players, so there must have something he did behind the scenes that the casual fan doesnt know about. as for the present situation, he definitely should be fired for making such a bigoted statement.
Name one NFL head coach who got the job with no coaching experience. I can't. Deion said he didn't want to have to work as hard as the assistant coaches... which is why he doesn't want to step out of the booth and onto the sidelines. He's great in the booth. Stay there.
so it's insulting to be called a "faggott" in the NFL because it's demeaning to gays? i wonder how open Morton would be to to having an openly gay teammate sharing the shower w/ him!
And Charlie Casserly worked his way up from scout. The point of RM95's post is more of it was ridiculous to give guy a G.M. position but everyone just accepted he would be good.
Yeah, you're probably right, I don't think they got a lot of support in the media, but there wasn't a lot of criticism either.
Now, I'm not that offended by what Millen did and don't think it was that big of a deal, but seriously, what is the point of this junior high level homophobia about showers? Do you really think that gay guys prowl shower rooms looking for straight men to ogle? I'm pretty sure that they use the shower in order to get clean like everybody esle. I'm sure a number of the guys down at the gym I go to are gay, it's just a fact of life living in New York, not to mention that the gym demographic skews gay anyway. However, I've been able to successfully use the shower for years without being groped, raped, assaulted, ogled, etc, or reasonable fear thereof. Now, maybe I'm just not homoerotically attractive enough to merit such consideration, I don't know, but either way there's been no problems. Time to grow up. It's almost 2004.
I don't think it's homophobic to think that a normal healthy man would be "oogling" a member of the sex he finds attractive. If you were in a shower with nude women would you oogle?
Incredibly enough, I'm going to suppose that, as most NFL locker rooms contain monogrammed towels and DVD players, that they have also implemented a luxury item known as a "shower stall" which tends to be very unconducive to ogling. So in short, I wouldn't do too much ogling for that reason, unless she was voluntarily in the stall with me, in which case ogling and more would likely be in order. Seriously, do you think gay guys, much less professional athletes, are such perverts that they can't comport themselves in a locker room with proper decorum? Moreover, do you think they'd find your run of the mill straight dude attractive at all? Come on, have you seen Queer Eye? Do you think those dudes would legitimately find you attractive? The irrationality of it all hints at insecurity.
