 NEW ORLEANS — If Chris Culliver, a little-known but productive backup cornerback for the 49ers, was looking to use the tremendous exposure of Super Bowl week to make a name for himself, he certainly did that — in a negative way. Shock jock Artie Lange revealed he had interviewed Culliver at media day Tuesday and aired a segment on his show that night, where the player insisted that any gay players would not be welcome on the team. No, we don't got no gay people on the team, they gotta get up out of here if they do." Can’t be with that sweet stuff.” 
 
 Culliver’s comments were made Tuesday and began circulating Wednesday. You can listen to the interview here: 
 
 The 49ers released a statement Wednesday in response to Culliver's remarks: 
 
 "The San Francisco 49ers reject the comments that were made [Tuesday], and have addressed the matter with Chris. “There is no place for discrimination within our organization at any level. We have and always will proudly support the LGBT community.” 
 
 Culliver, a third-round pick in 2011 from South Carolina, said if a player is gay, he should not go public with it. When quizzed by Lange whether any homosexual athletes would need to keep their sexuality a secret in football, Culliver responded: "Yeah, come out 10 years later after that." Meanwhile, Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs told reporters he "wouldn’t have a problem" with having an openly gay teammate in the locker room. "Obviously there will be people who disagree and people who don't have a problem with it, but that will be in life as well.
– San Francisco 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver says he doesn't want gay players on his team. "I don't do the gay guys, man," he told Artie Lange in an interview. "We don't got no gay people on the team; they gotta get up out of here if they do ... Can't be with that sweet stuff," and "can't be in the locker room," he said. Gay people should stay in the closet while playing and "come out 10 years after that," he said, per Yahoo! News. The team has rejected his comments: "There is no place for discrimination within our organization at any level. We have and always will proudly support the LGBT community." Culliver has since apologized, saying that "the derogatory comments I made yesterday were a reflection of thoughts in my head, but they are not how I feel." He added: "It has taken me seeing them in print to realize that they are hurtful and ugly. Those discriminating feelings are truly not in my heart .... I apologize to those who I have hurt and offended, and I pledge to learn and grow from this experience." The media is reacting: The apology was "half-hearted" and "bizarre," writes Gary Myers in the New York Daily News, noting that the 49ers were the first team to join the "It Gets Better" program for young LGBT people. An advocate for gay people in sports calls Culliver's initial comments "disrespectful, discriminatory, and dangerous, particularly for the young people who look up to him." "There goes a year's worth of progress for gay rights in the NFL," notes Connor Simpson at the Atlantic Wire, pointing to a year in which Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo and Vikings kicker Chris Kluwe have taken a stand for gay rights. On top of that, former 49er Kwame Harris was outed this week after a fight with his ex-boyfriend. "So, sorry, Chris: gay players have been in your locker room before," Simpson writes. It's now clear which team to root for in the Super Bowl if you support gay rights, notes the Daily Intelligencer.