Open Mouth, Insert Foot, Get Canned

Lee Steele

Over in England, the Oxford City Football Club has released Lee Steele from his obligations to the club after the footballer posted a comment on Twitter about openly gay rugby star Gareth Thomas--who will be appearing on the UK version of Celebrity Big Brother--that said: 

“I wouldn’t fancy the bed next to Gareth Thomas #padlockedarsehole”.

The comment was subsequently removed and Lee Steele’s Twitter account has not been updated since.

Club officials met to discuss the comment and later posted a short statement on the club website: 

“The Oxford City board have decided to release Lee Steele in view of his recent comment via social media which is considered seriously contrary to the ethos of the club.”

Mike Ford, the club’s manager said that firing Steele was the hardest thing he'd ever done in his career, but that Steele had to “pay for his error of judgement”. And then, oddly enough, he said that he feels that Lee's comment, while homophobic, “doesn’t necessarily mean [Lee's] homophobic”.

Um, yeah, it kinda does, when he Tweets that sharing a bed next to a gay man could result in being sexually assaulted. That's more than a wee bit homophobic.

This is the kind of action that needs to be taken when homophobic rants are released, or, perhaps, when homophobic slurs are uttered during competitions.

Eh, Kobe, et al?

I'm tired of the "It was said in the heat of the game" excuse for these kinds of taunts. I'm tired of the "I was just kidding, I have lots of gay friends" excuses. We wouldn't accept racist remarks uttered during a game, or Tweeted about a player, and it's time we reacted likewise to homophobic slurs.

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