Today Pittsburgh Steeler Joey Porter issued this "apology":

"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. That's pretty much that. I don't want to put any more into it...Whatever I say is going to be on an extra level anyway. But like I said, I didn't think it was that big of a deal when I said it anyway. So it's over with it."

Hmmmm....so he's sorry if he offended someone...not sorry for what he said...not sorry for hurling what he INTENDED to be an offensive slur at Kellen Winslow....In other words...he's sorry anyone else heard him call Winslow a "fag" not once, not twice, not three times, but four times in one 2 minute television interview.

And Steelers cornerback Deshea Townsend clearly is clueles... "That's how the game goes," Townsend said. "Joey was just expressing his opinion after someone cheap-shotted one of our guys. Joey was just standing up for one of his teammates."

In other words, Mr. Townsend seems to be saying that if Mr. Winslow didn't want to be called a fag he shouldn't have done the obviously "faggy" thing in cheap shotting Mr. Porter.

Um...I'm sorry, but I'm almost as offended by Mr. Townsend's ignorance as I am at Mr. Porter's intolerance.

Mr. Porter is 29 years old. For the 2006 and 2007 seasons together, he will make $8.5 million, not counting endorsements. Mr. Townsend will make over $2 Million in that same time period.

Accepting that money. they accept status as role models. Accepting that money, they accept status as public figures whose statements, particularly in live television interviews, are something for which they must be held accountable.

The NFL is still determining what, if any, fine Mr. Porter will pay.

Here's a thought...how about two weeks' pay...which would come to $163,000...payable to HRC, NGLTF or Lambda Legal.

And how about the NFL actually reaching out to the LGBT community on ways we can do something about the rampant ignorance and intollerance among their employees?

And while we're talking ignorance and intollerance, let's here one for the Rev. Vincent Fields who, on the day the New Jersey Senate was to vote on the Civil Unions bill offered this invocation on behalf of the Senate at the opening of the day's session..."We curse the spirit that would come to bring about same-sex marriage. We ask you to just look over this place today, cause them to be shaken in their very heart in uprightness."

Rev. Fields knows better and should be ashamed. Messrs.
Porter and Townsend's ignorance must be condemed and some serious education must be undertaken...immediately.

Edited to add: I'm not some thin skinned person who is crying for political corrctness. I'm just puzzled how an intollerant tirade (that was deplorable) by the former Kramer in a club setting gets people talking about the end of a career and similar epithets denigrating LGBT folk are used in a televised interview and everyone seems to be suggesting that the lgbt community is just being overly sensitive. Smell the double standard? Come on NFL...take a stand against homophobic tirades by your players...