With petitions, protest and criticism converging in a storm of bad press, the Nebraska Cornhuskers' notoriously anti-gay assistant coach Ron Brown has offered to become a martyr.
Brown, who regularly pontificates against the gay community in settings that range from the locker room to in front of the Omaha City Council, says it would "be a great honor" to be fired for what he describes as his "faith."
Though complaints against the assistant coach's vehement anti-gay bigotry have flooded University of Nebraska's administration offices for years, it wasn't until Brown testified at Omaha's hearing on its freshly minted anti-discrimination act that education officials joined the protest. After plunging the City Council hearing into previously unknown depths of crazy, Barbara Baier of the Lincoln Board of Education wrote UNL to request Brown's termination.
But Brown isn't shaking in his boots.
"To be fired for my faith would be a greater honor than to be fired because we didn't win enough games," Brown said in an interview with the AP. "I haven't lost any sleep over it. I realize at some point, we live in a politically correct enough culture where that very well could happen."
The University should have an easy way to divorce Brown from their rocky relationship in its sound non-discrimination policy. "This is about using that religion to discriminate against others and build an environment on the Cornhusker football team that prohibits gay athletes and allies from achieving their goals," writes Outsports' Cyd Zeigler.
Supporting the cause, Hudson Taylor's Athlete Ally has launched a petition imploring UNL to do the right thing. Sign it here.
Protecting one group and not another? So we shouldn't protect blacks? Jews? And political correct... So he can gay bash... Can I "nigger bash". Now I hate that word but that's what he's saying... Loser
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... written by Bill Dodd,
April 27, 2012
This story is Garbage... I attend school at UNL and have been a Husker fan from the womb. This story leads its readers to believe Brown has not been reprimended for his actions and seems to show no sign of doing so. On the contrary the University took little time to fire him after making such comments and using the University's name and Football tradition as a platform to do so. The University of Nebraska and the saner portion of its citizens know Brown was in the wrong. He has been fired and he is no longer affiliated with UNL or it's football program. Who researched this piece of trash??? Get facts before you publish if you want web based journalism to do its job. If not leave it to professionals.
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... written by Believer,
April 29, 2012
Here are a handful of corrections to your article: "faith"...Remove the quotes. complaints have flooded administration offices for years...Not true coach's vehement anti-gay bigotry...Not bigotry discriminate against others...Not discriminatory unknown depths of crazy...So, God is crazy? Hudson Taylor/do the right thing...Do those go together? Brown isn't shaking in his boots...Thank God!
