Just when you thought the NFL was becoming a kinder, gentler organization, Cleveland Browns linebacker Tank Carder reminds you it’s hard to change a jock’s strap.
After the purportedly comical “Because I’m a Guy” handle tweeted a “joke” about betraying teammates in a video game, Carder, having missed the point of said “joke,” responded accordingly:
“Unfollowed…your [sic] a faggot for that.”
He has since deleted the tweet (because that always works) but the damage had been done and Carder was taken to task for his indelicate language, to which he responded accordingly:
“I don’t agree with being gay or lesbian at all, but saying faggot doesn’t make me a homophobe, it’s just a word”
Well, you can’t argue with that logic (unless you’re the Associated Press), though some people apparently did, leading Carder to issue this half-hearted “apology”:
How about we take this to the next level?
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“If I offended anyone in anyway, I do apologize, thought the guy was bashing team sports, big misunderstanding”
Well, so long as it’s in the name of defending team sports, use “faggot” as often as you like, Tank Carder. Perhaps realizing, or being helped to realize, that an apology means you’re actually sorry for something, Carder took another pass at it:
“I want to sincerely apologize for the word I used! I did not in anyway mean to offend anyone! That tweet doesn’t define me as a person!”
The exclamation points really drive it home…or at last to the corner, since Carder issued another apology hours later:
“I was not bashing the gay community in any way…if you knew me you would know I wouldn’t do that. Again I’m sorry if you were offended”
Okay, so he apologized – several times – but Outsports is still calling for at least a one-game suspension as punishment (Yunel Ecobar was suspended for three games after writing a gay slur in Spanish on his eye black back in September).
However, Tank Carder’s blatant ignorance only proves that the NFL and other professional athletic organizations need to make more of an effort to educate and inform players on how not to be assholes in public.
GLAAD, Athlete Ally and You Can Play provide this kind of training, which would help to avoid any further embarrassing, and just plain stupid, gaffes like this in the future.
Then again, for someone who doesn’t “agree” with being gay, there’s probably a lot of stupidity not-too-far down the road.
Fitz
If he doesn’t agree with being gay, does that mean that he wants one of us to come and fuck his mom or sister? Is that what he is complaining about? Cuz.. I’m not into it.
MikeE
he didn’t “offend” us by saying “faggot”.
he offended us by saying that he doesn’t “agree with being gay or lesbian at all”. And yeah, dude, not “agreeing” with people being LGBT IS a sign of homophobia.
What a douchenozzle.
avesraggiana
Not to worry, give him another twenty years, when he’s old, fat and balding, and he’s arrested for soliciting and lewd conduct in a public restroom – with another guy….
avesraggiana
And with a name like “Tank”, how bright could this guy possibly be?
Gigi Gee
I don’t agree with professional football.
Red Meat
If my name was Tank Carder, I too would be homophobic.
Dakotahgeo
LOLOL…silly, stupid “jock”! Thankfully a great majority of sports people are normal!
Cam
So he’s a closet case…ok got it.
Spike
Tank Carder, sounds like a gay porn name to me.
pscheck2
o.. he apologizes. Let’s not over react by demanding his head on a platter! I hope we still havew freedom of speech in this country and let these assholes have their rant. If not, might we be restricted from venting our rant in defense of our cause? Charity goes a long way in healing the wounds to our physic.
FStratford
Maybe I can give someone a pass for “disagreeing with homosexuality”. Some well meaning people were raised in a very religious home.
Maybe I can give someone a pass for using the word faggot, if it was not intended to offend and it’s a one off.
But someone who “disagrees with homosexuality” and uses the word faggot pejoratively and does not admit it was a mistake which means he’ll keep on using the word (amplified by his fame)… Well, I would definitely not go for that.
Dumdum
TANK??? I have one of those on the back of my toilet. If I had a face like that, I’d teach my a** to talk. Oh right, he already did.
LaTeesha
He’s not a homophobe. Just a stupid asshole.
LeNair Xavier
I guess I’m a proud minority on this by taking the author and you commenters to task by asking…WHY THE HELL DO YOU CARE?!!!
I don’t follow sports. And of the professional athletes I know, he is one I have never heard of before this post. But thanks to this posting, you just gave notoriety to a narrow-minded ass that was invisible, and should have stayed that way.
What concern is his “disagreeing with being gay” to you? Is he a lawmaker? NO. Are you dating him? Would you want to? I don’t. Because I have enough self-respect to not care about the rantings of some football player exhibiting his overcompensating machismo and possibly mixed in with some roid-rage.
Papi Balenciaga
What a cave bitch.. I’m glad his name is Tank Carder and not Tyrone Carter or theses comments would look very different.
MK Ultra
Carder, break a leg out there on the field.
In fact, break your neck while you’re at it.
InscrutableTed
What does it mean when someone says they don’t “agree” with being gay? Being gay is not an opinion or an ideology. How can you agree or disagree with it?
Does he mean he doesn’t “approve”? Or is there some other subtlety of meaning that I’m missing?
darkmoonman
Awwww. Poor little closet-case dumb-jock. Next time, try the N-word and see how many friends that earns you.
Charli Girl
hey sugar britches.. I dont agree with your yellow teeth and big ears..Oh but i sincerly dont mean that offensive in anyway.If you knew me, youd UNDERSTAND!!! Get a real job twirp!!
D9W
A F-Bomb Breeder is what a F-Bomb Breeder does.
As for “If I offended anyone in anyway, I do apologize…”- My horses Ass, you knew what you were doing. Try say the N-Word to any of your black team mates and see what happens, dumb Shit!
He Needs more than just one time out. Maybe if they make him sit out 5 games so it hurts his pocket book, then maybe he will think before he sticks his head up his bum again.
Charli Girl
@LeNair Xavier:
LMAO…Really?..Whos is that lil twirp anyway.Who shivs a git what that boy agrees with..Oh i get it, he was under the assumption that his opinion mattered.Bahahahaha..belly laughing over in Texas
Daniel-Reader
What a homophobe. I won’t shed a tear if he gets paralyzed on field.
streeteditions
Dear Tank;
Nothing personal, but you chose to be on a team called the “BROWNS?” And you’re a “lineBACKER?” HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!
DanteL
@LeNair Xavier: I think the thousands of young men who play sports and dream of becoming a professional athlete without having to hide who they are care. This kind of stupidity only furthers the idea that professional sports is a hostile environment for LGBTQ people. And there are a lot of young athletes who are giving up their sports or taking their lives because they realize that hatred and vitrol and ignorance and intolerance and possibly even violence will be coming their way if they choose to live openly. So yeah, it’s a big deal and has nothing to do with my self-respect. I have enough self-respect to fight words of ignorance so that young men can live their dreams, no matter what their profession. Grow up.
BritAus
I’d rather be a faggot than be stupid.
Cee
He’s ugly IMO. Ugly guys always hate gays. So he doesn’t agree with being gay or lesbian. Well, I don’t agree with being a moron. Good thing he plays sports. Doesn’t sound to bright.
xamthor
because he was bashing “team sports” the HOLY institution of professional team sports…..
Professional sports are corporations/ institutions that manufacture distraction, mindless competition, and fetishized productivity. Professional sports are used by the capitalists to turn the human spirit into a commodified spectacle.
Professional sports is NOT more important than our LGBTQ population.
Geoff B
I eat breathe and sleep football and trust me when I say, the biggest punishment he could face is spending his entire career playing for the Browns. They are overall the most pitiful franchise in the NFL since they came back into existence back in the late 90’s.
KARUADAM
linebacker, have a big problem! he think he is white!!.
nineinchnail
Tosser!!!
Skooter McGoo
Just another Texas raised Christian homophobe that hates gay people because that is what the church teaches. Pastors calling for the government to kill all gay people. Other pastors teaching parents to punch their four year old boys if they do anything perceived as effeminate. This state is full of religious people that spread hate from generation to generation. I feel sorry for his son that will be taught such hate. If his kid ends up gay I’m sure Tank will call him that many times while throwing him out into the street to survive or die like he wants for all gay people. Not a person I would ever want to meet as he sounds like an awful person to be around.