49ers' Culliver Follows Through On Promise After Anti-Gay Remarks
LOS ANGELES (CBS SF) - San Francisco 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver, who made controversial remarks about gay players in the locker room during Super Bowl week, has followed on a promise to make amends to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community.
The Sacramento Bee reported the 24-year-old Culliver spent Sunday at the Los Angeles office of The Trevor Project, which provides crisis and suicide intervention for LGBT youths.
Culliver met with the group's executive director and also paid for the organizations' national education trainer to fly in from New York for the meeting, according to the Bee.
"He wants to use his profile as a professional athlete to help," Cullivers' public relations representative Theodore Palmer told the Bee. "He wants to become a volunteer for the organization and become more active. He really learned a lot today."
During an interview with comedian and shock jock Artie Lange days before the Super Bowl, Lange asked Culliver about having gay players in the locker room. "No, we don't got no gay people on the team, they gotta get up out of here if they do," Culliver said at the time. "Can't be with that sweet stuff."
The comments drew national attention and were denounced by the 49ers and the City of San Francisco, among others; prompting an immediate apology by Culliver who promised to educate himself on issues affecting the LGBT community.
Culliver has also offered to work with at-risk homosexual youth and spend time volunteering at a crisis center or in other areas.
A third-round draft pick in 2011 out of South Carolina, Culliver made 47 tackles with two interceptions and a forced fumble this season while starting six games for the NFC champions.
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