12/14/2006
Steeler Joey Porter Slapped with $10K Fine for Gay Slur
One week after Pittsburgh linebacker Joey Porter called Cleveland tight end Kellen Winslow, Jr. a "fag" in comments to media outlets following a game, the NFL has hit Porter with a $10,000 fine.
Porter "apologized" on Tuesday saying he didn't mean to offend anyone — except Winslow: "You know, that was probably a poor choice of words. So if I offended anybody, I apologize for that...I don't know ... I guess because how we used that word freely, me growing up using that word, I didn't think anything of it. Like I said, I apologize to anyone I may have offended. I didn't mean to offend anybody but Kellen Winslow."
It's the second fine this year for Porter. He was fined $15,000 earlier in the season for running at the mouth about an official during a game.
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Posted 3:45 PM EST by Andy Towle in Football (American), Gay Slurs, Joey Porter, Kellen Winslow Jr., News, Sports | Permalink
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Moron.
Posted by: Brian | Dec 14, 2006 3:52:25 PM
Could someone use the same excuse when using a racial slur? "I didn't mean anything by it. That's just how we use that word in my neighborhood."
Posted by: Drew | Dec 14, 2006 4:03:01 PM
They should have fined his ass more then tied humspread eagle over a bench in th Locker Room
Posted by: Wolf | Dec 14, 2006 4:12:50 PM
So it's okay to use a slur if you use it all the time. He knew the word was offensive because he intended to offend the person he was using it against. I'm tired of the half apology... "IF I offended anyone..."
Posted by: Lance | Dec 14, 2006 4:30:06 PM
uneducated idiot
Posted by: dave | Dec 14, 2006 4:33:34 PM
Drew, many people have used that excuse. The White gay men who support Charles Knipp and his Shirley Q. Liqour character use that excuse. I've heard older White people who've claimed that Black people keep changing what they want to be called, so it's hard to keep up, and that's why they've used the term.
Anyone can use any excuse that they want, but that doesn't mean that the public has to buy it. And obviously not too many people are buying it from Porter, or letting him think that feigning ignorance is okay. Your rather weak question would hold more water if Porter and others weren't called out on their ignorance. I wish the same could be said for those who support people like Knipp or others who find it necessary to hide their bigotry behind the guise of "well Black people are bigots too."
Posted by: Cadence | Dec 14, 2006 4:33:44 PM
The sad thing about this is that the fine is probably specifically for saying something vulgar about another player and not for using a slur that is offensive to a whole minority of people.
The offense was insinuating that Winslow was gay, because, as we all know, softness and poor sportsmanship is synonymous with being a fag; at least according to Porter.
The NFL needs to stop pussyfooting around with this sh*t. They, like hundreds of corporations across the country, need to institute a workplace standard where such bigoted language is forbidden during working hours or when representing the league. Their current policy basically says don't say these things on the record. When you say it every day in your work environment it's only to be expected that it will eventually slip out when the cameras are rolling.
And before anyone comes up with the old "it's just part of being an athlete and impossible to control" meme or the "freedom of speech" line let me just say that speech is regulated every day in companies across America and if racial slurs can be controlled by the NFL so can anti-gay slurs. It's simply a matter of doing what they want to do and not doing what they don't.
Posted by: Zeke | Dec 14, 2006 4:34:55 PM
Cadence,
What about the black gays who support Shirley Q. Liquor (Rupaul, for example)?
Just asking...
Posted by: jmg | Dec 14, 2006 4:38:24 PM
Zeke, I'm with you 100%.
Posted by: Oscar | Dec 14, 2006 4:43:43 PM
This "fine" is mere pocket change to this overpaid, over-pampered moron.
Set the penalty at a level where it will actually MEAN SOMETHING to the offender. Why not fine him $1,000,000.00? That would really get his attention and perhaps make him think twice before using an epithet towards anyone.
BTW, I adore Shirley Q. Liquour. I don't think that I have heard her use the "N-word" in her routines... but she does oftentimes call people "ignunt". And when she does, she's usually right!
Posted by: Jonathon | Dec 14, 2006 5:10:32 PM
I think Black people should be fined every time they call another Black person the N-word.
At least we know the money will be going right back into the community!
Posted by: LightningLad | Dec 14, 2006 5:18:47 PM
Shirley Q. Liquor is a disgusting minstrel act that is as offensive as any other moron who denigrates a people so viciously. And, so what if RuPaul like or dislikes Shirley? Elton John kissed Eminem's ass. That didn't make him any less of a homophobe.
What's still amazing is that people still use ignorant comments like Porters as an excuse to make racist comments about African-Americans.
Posted by: noah | Dec 14, 2006 5:30:48 PM
I personally never found the Shirley Q thing in good taste, which is why I was surprised when RuPaul featured Kipp on his album.
But obviously RuPaul would disagree with me and others here who think the character is offensive.
Which brings me to... exactly why do we keep insisting that everyone in our group - whatever group we call ourselves - must be in absolute agreement? All whites are not bigots and all African Americans are not free of bigotry.
What I see on these threads, however, are people who take a situation like this and spin it so whatever group they wish to diss comes out looking worse.
Posted by: mark m | Dec 14, 2006 6:15:07 PM
truly a DUMB ASS N, Oh right that would be wrong to say
Posted by: Richie | Dec 14, 2006 6:38:13 PM
What the heck is Shirley Q?
Sometimes I feel like I live on another planet!
Posted by: Zeke | Dec 14, 2006 7:14:50 PM
From wikipedia:
Knipp concedes that his performances as Shirley can make people uncomfortable. Knipp has said his show is about "lancing the boil of institutionized racism" and that "treating African Americans as if they have a disease is the real racism" because black people are "more than intelligent enough to discern the nuance" of his performances. He's also said that "many people thought that Harriet Beecher-Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was and still is perceived as racist, despite being the probable artistic genesis of emotional support against slavery in the 19th century."
Entertainer RuPaul has supported Knipp's performances. RuPaul has said that "critics who think that Shirley Q. Liquor is offensive are idiots. Listen, I've been discriminated against by everybody in the world: gay people, black people, whatever. I know discrimination, I know racism, I know it very intimately. She's not racist, and if she were, she wouldn't be on my new CD."
Posted by: Rey | Dec 14, 2006 7:22:55 PM
Richie, why can't he simply be a dumb ass, it doesn't make any sense to bring that word into it.
I don't think Porter was calling Winslow gay. what he was doing is much worse. He was using the word to put Winslow down, and that was the most derrogatory thing that he could think of. Which is the same as a lot of people in here do when they call a homophobic person or a closet case Miss.
I don't care if Rupaul supports Charles Knipp, that doesn't make his act any less disgusing. I think we can name a lot of gay people who support homophobes, but that still doesn't give the homophobe a pass.
Posted by: Cadence | Dec 14, 2006 7:26:29 PM
Rey, how nice of you to leave out the part about Knipp performing in Black face, which until I changed the information on Wikipedia, used to read that Knipp performs in African American make-up.
Knipp is just a sorry excuse for a human being. To compare what he does to Uncle Tom's Cabin is a joke. His act is derrogatory, and is clearly meant to be an insult. He feels so bad about himself that he feels the need to degrade the only people who he feels are lower on the totem pole than he is. Nothing about Knipp's act is meant to be complimentary or to mock steretypes. In fact, on his website he brags about how many people tell him that Shirley is a true depiction of Black women. That doesn't support the claim that it is an exaggeration. Knipp and his supporters are as pathetic as Porter, they actually believe that the garbage that he spews is true.
Posted by: Cadence | Dec 14, 2006 7:33:35 PM
Some black people are homophobic dickheads. Some gay people are racist assholes. Either way you cut it, they're both totally fucked.
Posted by: Dex | Dec 14, 2006 8:16:57 PM
Zeke,
You're to be forgiven. I only came across Shirley Q when a dj acquaintance gave me a CD. I assumed it was a black man doing a drag act. I didn't realize till later that it was a white man.
So first, Shirley Q wasn't funny, then Shirley Q turns out to be offensive as well.
I don't know about others here but I'm getting sick of hearing young white gay boys (most of Knipp's fanbase it seems) say "How you durin?"
Posted by: mark m | Dec 14, 2006 10:14:33 PM
Count me in Zeke.....I have no clue who this person is either.
As to Porter...a 10 or 15 thousand dollar fine is like one of us mortals buying a candy bar...50 cents minimum. The guy is pulling down about 3 million a year....they need to fine him with a 10 game suspension....that would make his sorry ass scream and hurt the team and league that thinks it's ok to let guys like him off because they play a damn game.
Posted by: joshua | Dec 14, 2006 10:24:35 PM
That said, I had never heard of Shirley Q until today either.
Posted by: Rey | Dec 15, 2006 12:01:21 AM
I have a headache so I will make this quick:
1. Here is Shirley Q. Liquor. You be the judge. http://jasmynecannick.typepad.com/jasmynecannickcom/2006/12/here_we_go_agai.html
2. I agree with Jonathan & Joshua about the "fine". This is a slap on the wrist for Porter. I predict he will say something stupid again real soon. I don't agree with Jonathan about Shirly Q. Liquor.
3. I agree with Zeke, Cadence, Dex, Noah & Mark M.
And finally, lest anyone forget, here is a reminder of what Oscar said about Porter in a previous post:
"A nigger will always a nigger be. No matter how many bucks do they make, the nigger in them will always come out."
That's right Oscar, I'm not gonna let anyone forget your "pearls of wisdom".
P.S. Shout out to my homies Zeke, PeterParker, & Andy!
Posted by: soulbrotha | Dec 15, 2006 1:58:32 AM
Sorry! Shout out to YEAHISAIDIT too!
Peace everybody! Except you Oscar.
Posted by: soulbrotha | Dec 15, 2006 2:04:24 AM
Oh please
$10,000 is a drop in the ocean for this guy. I mean what does that mean he gets to buy one less pair of diamond earrings?
They should of fines his dumb ass alot more
Posted by: steve | Dec 15, 2006 3:30:48 AM