This guy needs to lose his job and run for office as a member of the tea party.
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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / LGBTQ Rights / Gay Rights are Human Rights / DEAR NFL- You Have a Mike Priefer Problem
ranchandsyrup
Kluwe is a good man. Liked his book as well.
Napoleon
Maybe the NFL can blame Priefer’s outburst on head trauma.
Schlemizel
GEE! Who would have thought speaking out on an idea not in alignment with religious nutwads would be a problem in such an open and accepting environment as an NFL team?
I am a fan of Chris & I thought what he did it taking such a bold – and rather loud – stance was a brave thing to do. NFL locker rooms are full of Xianist nutjobs who are only too happy to look for an excuse. It was obvious he was giving them one. I cannot imagine he was the least bit surprised by what happened next, hes a college grad with 8 years in the NFL, can’t be THAT stupid.
He got screwed and apparently he is the only one who was surprised by that
Penus
I trust that the entire country will be up in arms that someone was fired from his job for speaking his mind about a topic. #IStandWithChris
VOR
Vikings head coach Leslie Frazer was fired on Monday following the end of a 5-10-1 season. Typically the entire coaching staff turns over following the hiring of a new head coach. So Priefer has probably already been fired.
The Vikings replaced Kluwe with a younger and cheaper punter, saving something like $300k per year.
ranchandsyrup
@VOR: In the article, Kluwe points out that Priefer was identified as the only “internal” candidate for the Vikings head coaching spot.
Penus
@Schlemizel:
In all seriousness (as opposed to my tongue-in-cheek wishing in #4), Kluwe had to know this was inevitable once he started speaking up. He’s a punter. I’m glad it didn’t stop him from speaking up. He made me proud to be a Vikings fan (a pride that dissipated significantly today). But he’s a punter.
Put another way: It’s sad, but Phil Robertson is probably more valuable doing what he does than Kluwe is doing what he does. If Peyton Manning does the same things Kluwe did, he doesn’t get cut.
maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor
@Schlemizel: This is more or less where I am. He got dicked over by a homophobic nut job who works in a league/sport with a rigid, militaristic organizational hierarchy that makes the US armed services envious. He couldn’t have realistically expected anything else (which arguably makes his actions that much more noble).
Penus
@ranchandsyrup:
That’s the main reason I’m applauding Kluwe for writing this. It looks like he’s come to terms with the fact that he’ll likely never work in the NFL again, and he’s napalming Priefer on his way out the door. Good for him for exposing what an asshat Priefer is.
Violet
The NFL has a homophobe problem. How many gay and out players are currently playing in the NFL? How many played while gay and out in the past? Isn’t that number zero? The NFL has the ability to change that but won’t. Little surprise they’ve got coaches like this idiot on their payroll.
Jim, Foolish LIteralist
@Schlemizel: I read his essay and he doesn’t seem the least bit surprised, and he admits he was not exactly a franchise player. If he wants to use the internets to out this Priefer guy as a hate-filled nut job, I’ve got no problem with it.
maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor
@Violet: Save some righteous anger for every other professional sport. It’s not like the NFL has the market cornered.
Violet
@maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor: Yep, but this post specifically mentioned one coach in the NFL. I think the problem in the NFL is not one coach but the NFL itself. Since we’re talking about them, let’s talk about them truthfully. Don’t make this Mike Priefer the fall guy for the entire structure. He couldn’t do what he did if the organization didn’t allow and condone it.
Jim, Foolish LIteralist
@maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor: I’m not even willing to bet a dollar on my recollection that he was in fact a pitcher, but I’m pretty sure John Rocker was a baseball player, right? He took to some NewsMax-like forum to spew hate at Josh Barro over that guy with the beard from that show.
khead
@Schlemizel:
Uh, no.
Also, Mr. Cole, as a Stiller fan AND Deadspin reader you shoulda linked to the Tomlin gifs long ago.
JPL
Priefer believes that there is a religious exception to bigotry.
Ben Cisco
It would appear that Kluwe is familiar with old Klingon proverb “Revenge is a dish best served cold. It is very cold…in January.”
Roger Moore
@Penus:
I don’t know about that. Apparently the team owner was pleased with his advocacy, which is the kind of backing you’d hope would keep the coaches from retaliating. Unfortunately, it looks as if the owner’s support was pretty thin once it came to doing more than giving him an attaboy.
Dead Ernest (Thought Wrangler)
Thanks for pointing it out John.
I would not have found it otherwise.
I enjoyed reading it. Interesting, well written.
Cacti
Remembering what a generally thoughtful and enlightened bunch high school and college football players and coaches tended to be, I am utterly surprised by this move.
Kudos to Kluwe for having the courage to stand by his convictions. It’s always safer not to rock the boat.
elmo
@Penus:
Excuse me, but the delivery people need an address for your Internets.
Hal
If only he had strangled a few dogs with his bare hands. That seems more palatable to the NFL than icky gayness.
maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor
@Jim, Foolish LIteralist: Oh, yeah, Rocker is a multidimensional asshole whose hatred is outlasting his athletic abilities by a country mile.
askew
@VOR:
As an expensive punter, he just wasn’t worth the headache I am sure. Had that been Tom Brady speaking up like that, it wouldn’t matter what he said. And Kluwe was just as likely to lose his job by not saying anything. He was just too old and too expensive.
I still hope Priefer doesn’t land the coaching job as I am a Vikings fan.
Penus
@Roger Moore:
It appears to me that Frazier and Wilf indulged his passion for the gay marriage issue – outwardly supported it, in Wilf’s case. I think they took exception to him opining on other social and political matters (I’m thinking here of his tweets about the pope and the Catholic church).
Ridnik Chrome
Newsmax headlines say Bob Grant died. Since we’re on the subject of famous bigots…
askew
@Penus:
I think it still comes down to him being too expensive and too old. If Adrian Peterson said those exact same things, he’d still be on the team because Peterson is worth the money the Vikes spend on him. Kluwe just wasn’t anymore and was easily replaced.
Dead Ernest (Thought Wrangler)
@Violet:
After thinking about your post for a bit Violet, I’m thinking your first sentence was intended to disagree with kluwe.
As in; ‘Kluwe says the NFL doesn’t have a homophobe problem. I disagree and here’s why…’
I understand your reasoning. But it took me awhile to get your point because your first sentence, as written, first led me to think you hadn’t read Kluwe’s piece, undercutting what you’d written.
/intending to be helpful, not intended to be ‘nitpicking’
WaterGirl
I can’t wait to see what Dave Zirin has to say about this.
Ridnik Chrome
Oops, didn’t realize that Grant died on New Year’s Eve. Been down with the flu, spent most of the past three days in bed, haven’t been watching the news. Sorry!
RobertB
@Jim, Foolish LIteralist: John Rocker, the Ku Klux Kloser.
Penus
@askew:
Oh, I agree completely. He was basically an average to below-average punter in 2012, and punting is a minimum-salary job under nearly all circumstances. Kluwe was a nine-year veteran and would have been guaranteed a minimum of $940,000. Rookie scale for the position is $405,000. He ran into the time-honored sports rule that you’d better be worth the trouble.
As an aside, after looking up those numbers, punting in the NFL is nice work if you can get it.
slippytoad
This is the same NFL that gets a 100% tax-free living courtesy their buddies in the Congress.
Just mentioning that . . . like television preachers, the NFL apparently prefers to make their living with as little return to the community as possible.
Another word for that is Taker.
askew
@Penus:
Not worth the money IMO. All it takes is one illegal hit from an opposing player to squash them like a grape. They are 1/3 the size of most the other players.
aimai
@Roger Moore: I’m pretty sure people like the Team Owner treat the players like pets–they pat them when the pet wins trophies or makes them feel good, but if the vetrinarian tells them its time to put the pet down or trade it away they shrug and figure there are plenty more where that came from.
Violet
@Dead Ernest (Thought Wrangler): No, I’m disagreeing with Cole’s post title. He says the NFL has a Mike Priefer problem. I say the NFL has a homophobe problem. This Priefer guy is a bigot and an ass, but the problem is bigger than him.
Violet
@maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor: Good lord. I’d never heard of this John Rocker guy so went googling around. This is from November. Select tweets from him include:
and
And in support of steroid use:
Lovely gentleman.
indycat32
@slippytoad: Also the same NFL that jacks up ticket prices for playoff games and then blacks out the game when people don’t take out a second mortgage to purchase tickets. (Packers, Colts and Bengals all in danger of not selling out.)
RobertB
@askew:
I’m with you on that. I think Chris Kluwe himself thinks that too. He was middle of the pack, with a top-end punter’s salary, and that’s what got him canned. Most other teams see the same thing.
Like you said, if A.P. was out there, espousing pretty much _anything_, he would be ignored by the coaching staff.
Anton Sirius
@Violet: If there weren’t a John Rocker, we wouldn’t have Kenny Powers.
I think that’s a fair price to pay.
SiubhanDuinne
@maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor: It was embarrassing to be a Braves fan during the Rocker days. I had mercifully forgotten all about him. Now I have to forget about him all over again. Thanks, Obama.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@indycat32:
I have a feeling that the Packers’ tickets will sell out (it’s still the cheapest ticket in the league), but I think people are weighing whether they want to face the really, really cold weather that’s forecast for late Sunday afternoon. I’ve been to a sub-zero game there, and I’m not so sure I’d want to do it again, even as much as I love the team.
Elizabelle
First long article on sports I’ve read in a while, and it was worthwhile.
Leslie Frazier, recently fired coach, appears to be African American. Imagine his brilliant career as a major team coach in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, maybe even 1970s.
No? Why not?
Elizabelle
duplicate
Plus: I admire Chris Kluwe for speaking out for fairness. Kudos to him.
Violet
@Anton Sirius: I don’t know who Kenny Powers is either. Baseball player? Seriously, I don’t watch the sport–or pretty much any sport–unless one of my home teams gets into the playoffs. Do watch some golf because of a family member and rugby because of another.
Omnes Omnibus
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): The Packer tickets will sell out.
FormerSwingVoter
I like the part where the coach tells Kluwe to intentionally make his stats worse, in order to make cutting him easier:
gene108
Kluwe had an 8 year run in the NFL. That’s pretty damn good for a punter. In 2012 he was the 24th best punter in the NFL.
That’s not good enough for a veteran looking to keep his job.
I’m glad he’s taking a stand on marriage equality, but this is not like the Phil Robertson issue at all.
What Phil Robertson said was 10x worse than Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder saying “blacks were bred to be athletes” (I paraphrase) and getting shit canned 30 years ago.
There’s precedent to fire Phil Robertson for racist comments. Phil’s job is to entertain and not be a racist asshole in public.
Kluwe’s performance was probably as much an issue as anything else.
The crap he got from coaches and management is a different matter and probably should be made an issue for the NFL to address.
indycat32
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): Colts play in a dome so there’s no excuse there. During regular season teams can discount tickets to sell out games. The NFL won’t allow that in the playoffs.
FlipYrWhig
@FormerSwingVoter: that wouldn’t necessarily make his stats worse — by cutting down on return yards, he could end up with a similar net punting average. Thoughtful, strategic punting is one of the most unappreciated developments IMHO in recent football history. Instead of just banging it as far as possible, or kicking out of bounds, they have it all worked out and clever-like. Both punters and kickers these days are nothing like their counterparts from the late 70s and early 80s when I started watching the NFL. Better-rounded athletes, not soccer washouts from other continents.
Penus
@FlipYrWhig:
Yeah, while Priefer was a gigantic asshole to Kluwe, I don’t think he asked him to kick higher and shorter in order to provide cover for cutting him. I can vouch that the Vikings’ coverage teams were fucking terrible when this was happening.
(Which makes me wonder why Priefer was getting consideration for the head gig in the first place.)
Mustang Bobby
I’m sure that Mr. Kluwe has the support of the same fighters for freedom of speech that stood up for the outspoken folks on Duck Dynasty. Over to you, Ms. Palin.
[crickets]
kindness
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): Yea I understand. Watching the Pack lose to the Niners on a freezing cold day can’t be fun….
Roger Moore
@Elizabelle:
It’s hard to imagine him having much of a career as a coach at least until the late 1980s. Wayne Fontes was the first African American head coach in the modern NFL, and he wasn’t hired until 1988. An African American head coach was even more of an oddity than an African American starting quarterback until at least the 2000s.
Violet
@gene108:
Phil’s job is to be who he is. He’s not memorizing lines and acting in a show, nor is he singing or dancing or any other skill that entertainers have. His “skill” is to be himself or at least a caricature of himself. He plays a backwoods business owner and makes no attempts to hide his religion and associated beliefs. A&E knows who he is. Don’t you wonder what they’ve left on the cutting room floor. He’s a racist and a bigot. That’s who he is. That’s how he entertains his viewers.
FormerSwingVoter
@FlipYrWhig: @Penus:
Obviously, Kluwe isn’t the most unbiased sort here, but I was just paraphrasing his own thoughts on the matter. He was 18th in Net Avg Punt Yardage, for what that’s worth. I’m sure their new P is an upgrade (considering they used a pick to grab him), but there’s other positions they probably should have gone after from a pure team-improvement perspective.
dr. bloor
@Elizabelle:
Well, his race is certainly relevant, but it’s hard to imagine his brilliant career back then because he’s a terrible coach.
aimai
@Violet: I’d be very wary about assigning to Phil and the entire show any notions of authenticity or unscripted spontaneity. As far as I know these “reality TV shows” are as scripted as any TV show–people just aren’t naturally funny enough, or interesting enough, to make several hours worth of TV out of even if you left the cameras running 24 hours a day and clipped out all the belching, bathroom breaks, and snoozing that people do. I read a confessional account of a reality show which described the producers/tech people literally sitting under the counter feeding lines to people to make more interesting situations.
I’m not disputing that this guy is a major league asshole and that this is, in fact, part of his charm for his viewers. But I doubt very, very, much that anything is left to chance in his portrayal. My feeling about the recent dust up is that Robertson wanted to go full metal culture warrior because he knows that will make his fans buy more of his shit and he doesn’t want to end up having too many gay/liberal fans because that dilutes his influence over his true believers. He’d rather have a smaller but more vociferous fan base that buys his shit than a little surface popularity as a nice guy with a beard and a duck business.
Gex
I’d say that having a coach be comfortable in advocating for executing all gays in front of the entire team with no fear of repercussion probably means there is some sort of problem. It’s one thing to expect there to be differing opinions on gays and to tolerate that. To have an atmosphere where talking about murdering masses of people goes without protest or sanction is way beyond that.
Violet
@Elizabelle:
He was born in 1959 so in 1979 he would only have been 20 years old. Not exactly head coach in the NFL material.
The NFL was a racist organization for a long time. Is that your point? It’s not a big secret.
Violet
@aimai: Oh yeah, “reality TV” isn’t exactly reality. I heard a radio show on it the making of one that covered some of the same stuff you mention. Still, the basic material has to be there. They cast the shows looking for certain types and the duck family fits whatever they wanted for the show. The producers most likely create situations and feed lines and help create “conflict” but at the core they are who they are.
As for things being left to chance, again, that doesn’t happen. Between scripting and editing, the show is what they want it to be. But if the raw material isn’t there, it won’t work.
I mentioned before that a doctor’s office I visit had to move because they were filming a reality show at a service industry business next door to their old office. The folks at the front desk had plenty to say about how that went down. The proprietors of the business said the producers told them they were chosen because they were perfect reality show material, or something like that. They look pretty crazy and had an insane life from all accounts. So, perfect for reality TV. Like I said above, the raw material was there. Then they edit it to make it work. They’re themselves only more so.
Roger Moore
@Gex:
You know who else advocated killing all the gays…
Dead Ernest (Thought Wrangler)
@Violet:
Ironically, as I’m unable to help myself with this compulsion, I’ll continue my effort to be relentlessly …helpful:
Kluwe’s concluding paragraph:
Your first sentence:
My initial effort to be useful was to show you how that first sentence, suggested to me, that you hadn’t read Kluwe’s article.
My reason for wishing to be useful is because I agree with you and thought your point was at risk of being ignored/ discounted by imperious clowns – like me – who will ignore or discount folks who seem more motivated to Just Say Stuff than in providing their perspective upon assessing that which is being discussed.
This last point more a case of me hollering at the millions of people who will never read this than it is me pointing at you Violet.
(More irony I guess. I wonder if there’s a patient advocacy org for whatever the Hell one calls the pathological pursuit of Meta-Clarity?)
Violet
@Dead Ernest (Thought Wrangler): I guess it depends what you mean by “institutionalized homophobia”. I suppose there are various ways of looking at it. I don’t think the NFL has an overt policy that one must be homophobic. But they clearly don’t have practices or rules in place that would punish or at least discourage their employees from behaving in a bigoted way. They were long known for their institutionalized racism, so personally I think they do have institutionalized homophobia. So you’d be right in observing that I do disagree with Kluwe.
I think Kluwe wanted to keep his harshest criticism for that specific coach. If he blamed the entire NFL it would not help his main goal, which seems to be to to keep the coach from getting the head coach job for the Vikings. I’m not saying he’s lying in this article about his opinion on institutionalized racism. I wonder if you hashed out the issue with him if he wouldn’t perhaps change his mind.
ranchandsyrup
I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Priefer’s son’s twitter highlights: http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2014/01/homophobic_vikings_coach_mike_priefers_son_enjoys_calling_people_gay_on_twitter.php
ruemara
@ranchandsyrup: I think that’s more a stupid boy’s twitter feed.
ranchandsyrup
@ruemara: I understand where you’re coming from. I think it is both. Learned behavior/beliefs exacerbated by the stupidity/hubris of a young man.
Violet
@ranchandsyrup: The son may be an ass and his Twitter feed may be an insight into the family life, but it doesn’t seem right to judge the parent by the child’s behavior. I’d prefer to keep the kid out of it.
Roger Moore
@Violet:
I think what the NFL- and team sports in general- have is a problem with authoritarianism. They are built around the people at the top telling their subordinates what to do, and that is allowed to extend beyond things that are relevant to the job. If the guys at the top are homophobes, they’re allowed to enforce their homophobia on their subordinates; if they’re racists, they’re allowed to enforce racism on their subordinates. Note that the real world pecking order doesn’t necessarily follow exactly the lines on the official org chart; Jim Bouton commented that a superstar player is higher on the status hierarchy than a manager, while a marginal player is below the clubhouse attendant. I guess a punter is pretty far down the hierarchy on an NFL team.
Note, though, that authoritarianism can cut both ways. It can be used to enforce regressive policies like institutional homophobia if somebody high enough in the hierarchy wants to make a point of it; it was certainly enough to enforce institutional racism on some teams long after the color line was officially over. My gut feeling is that the homophobia that’s keeping players from coming out today is more from the coaches and higher ups in team management than it is from the other players. The flip side is that it can be used to enforce progressive ideas if the people at the top are progressive. That’s how Branch Rickey was able to push through integration in the teeth of fierce resistance from a lot of his players. He had the power to trade or fire any player who wasn’t willing to go along, and that made a bunch of players who might have been personally reluctant to accept Jackie Robinson as a teammate keep their mouths shut.
ranchandsyrup
@Violet: I disagree and think that that the kid’s behavior directly reflects on the parent (that goes double for me with my kids) but it’s prolly best to keep the youngster out of this.
On the other hand, if I were a public figure, I wouldn’t let my kids tweet under the public settings.
pseudonymous in nc
Yeah, who knew that handegg’s coaching setup was problematic with a side order of Old Time Religion. I mean, we don’t see any creepy cultish dynamics related to high school and college coaches, do we?
Violet
@ranchandsyrup: I guess I was speaking specifically in this instance. The kid using “gay” a lot in his Twitter feed doesn’t necessarily support the assertion that his dad is a homophobe.
In general, yes, a child’s behavior can say a lot about the parents. But not always. I’ve got several examples from my own life but in the interest of privacy for some individuals I’ll not go into detail. I will say that other things like mental illness can come into play and be an issue for a child’s behavior that is unrelated to the parent or home life.
pseudonymous in nc
@aimai:
That’s his call, but I’m not sure whether the audience is there for Preachin’ With Some Hijinks as opposed to Hijinks With Some Preachin’.
Those reality show contracts basically give the producers the right to present you warts and all, or give you an edit to make you even wartier — the “defamation clause” — so A&E’s semi-scriptwriters have probably been spending the holidays working out how they want to handle this. I predict some kind of contrivance where ol’ Papa Duck goes out bird-blasting with some rugged conservative gay hunters, along with lots of ‘bear’ jokes.
ranchandsyrup
@Violet: I agree, it doesn’t support the assertion that dad is a homophobe. It does support the assertion that dad either passively or actively allows his son to say those things in a public forum.
Agreed re: your 2nd paragraph.
Dad came out with a statement: http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikings/blogs/238519931.html
He has gay family members so he wants a pass.
Violet
@ranchandsyrup: Or maybe the dad doesn’t know the kid has a Twitter account. Not sure how old everyone is, but it wouldn’t be the first time a kid did something online that the parent didn’t know about.
That article is a PR piece. Is anyone buying that?
ranchandsyrup
@Violet: Not knowing that your kid has a twitter account when his tweets could affect your livelihood as a public figure goes to dad’s parenting as well…. but I think you know where I’m coming from and I understand your points.
Priefer’s statement is no surprise. What else was he going to say. He seems to be alluding to some sort of libel suit. We’ll see if he files.
Violet
@ranchandsyrup: Yeah, I know where you’re coming from. I do think it’s poor parenting if the kid has a Twitter account and the parent doesn’t know about it. And if the parent has a job approaching “public figure” then it’s just stupid not to keep an eye on their kid’s online life.
ruemara
@ranchandsyrup: Hah! The I have gay friends/family defense never gets old.
Heliopause
I commend Kluwe for the stance he has taken, but there are a couple of problems with his story. First, Priefer denies it. Second, Kluwe has been a mediocre to below average punter almost his entire career, giving the team all the excuse they needed to cut him and save a few hundred thousand bucks.
Jamey
“Furst Amendmunt Rights!” “He’s bein’ persecuted!” “Libruhls are the REAL bigots.” #StandWithMikePriefer. … Ah, I got nuthin’!
VOR
@Heliopause: Kluwe was a decent, reliable punter but not a superstar. The article shows that the Vikings PR people, and probably Management, were annoyed by Kluwe’s PR fallout. Then there was the opportunity to cut him and save $300-400k a year with a younger, cheaper punter. Dumping him made the PR issue go away and saved money so undoubtedly management saw this as a win-win.
MattR
@Heliopause: Kluwe may have been a mediocre punter but 2012 was also his best season numbers-wise. That is usually not the time to waste a draft pick to replace your punter if there aren’t other reasons.
Keith P
@Mustang Bobby: As we speak, Sarah Palin is crafting a masterful Facebook post railing against Kluwe’s loss of his freedom of speech. This will mobilize other freedom lovers to insist – no, demand – that he gets hired back to become not just a punter but also their starting QB!
MoeLarryAndJesus
I suggest “priefer” as the new slang term for a boner that doesn’t last long enough to complete the act.
Maybe Dan Savage can run with it ala “santorum.”
Heliopause
@VOR: @VOR:
Once again: the plain fact is that Kluwe was precisely the type of player that gets cut by the dozen every year in the NFL, easily replaceable and overpaid (for his position). The suggestions he makes in his piece that he was a pretty good punter by NFL standards are simply not true, as a check of the stats quickly confirms. That’s not an insult, by the way, it’s simply an honest evaluation of the NFL, where being twentieth best in the world at something doesn’t get you any job security.
Unsurprisingly, Priefer denies the allegations. Also unsurprisingly, other players are backing Priefer. That’s not to say that Kluwe’s story isn’t substantially true, but it really isn’t very smart to jump to broad conclusions before all the information comes in.
Missouri Buckeye
@gene108:
I looked at that ranking, and couldn’t figure out what criteria they were using for the ranking. Kluwe had better stats than several other punters who were above him in the list (Nortman and Harris, to name two), so I call shenanigans on that 24th place rating.
If you rank by Net Yds (punt distance minus return) he is 18th, one spot below the median.
Now you could argue that we wasn’t worth the money that he’d cost because of his veteran status, but you’d think that some team would have signed him last year is desperation if his outspoken-ness hadn’t been an issue.
Howlin Wolfe
@Schlemizel: I didn’t get the impression he was surprised, but that he was not getting the message that he would be let go. Even if you can anticipate it, it still rattles you when it happens.