Brendon Ayanbadejo isn’t just a fixture in the Baltimore Ravens’ perennially formidable defense. He’s also an outspoken proponent of same-sex marriage, and was one of the first athletes in one of the United States’ major sports leagues to say so, which he did in a 2009 column for The Huffington Post.

Since then, Ayanbadejo has been involved with Marylanders for Marriage Equality, the organization that backed the Old Line State’s legalization of same-sex marriage. Recently, he gave away a pair of tickets to the Ravens’ season opener on Sunday as part of Marylanders for Marriage Equality’s push to defeat a ballot initiative that would overturn the new same-sex marriage law before it can take effect.

Earlier this week, one of Maryland’s most outspoken opponents of same-sex marriage denounced Ayanbadejo, saying it was “inconceivable” that an NFL player would support marriage equality:

“Many of my constituents and your football supporters are appalled and aghast that a member of the Ravens Football Team would step into this controversial divide and try to sway public opinion one way or the other,” Del. Emmett C. Burns Jr., a Democrat from Baltimore County, told Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti in a letter that was obtained by WBAL.

But Ayanbadejo isn’t the only NFL player to be outspoken in his support for same-sex marriage. Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe caught wind of Burns’ letter and was thoroughly unimpressed. In addition to being a guy who dropkicks footballs, Kluwe is also a contributor to Deadspin, where today he unleashed an epic takedown of Burns’ dismissal of a player for whom he should be cheering.

“I find it inconceivable that you are an elected official of Maryland’s state government. Your vitriolic hatred and bigotry make me ashamed and disgusted to think that you are in any way responsible for shaping policy at any level,” Kluwe writes, inverting Burns’ own complaint to the Ravens.

The best part of Kluwe’s response, though, hits at Burns’ insinuation that professional football is strictly for “strictly for pride, entertainment, and excitement.” To that, Kluwe says:

Holy fucking shitballs. Did you seriously just say that, as someone who’s “deeply involved in government task forces on the legacy of slavery in Maryland”? Have you not heard of Kenny Washington? Jackie Robinson? As recently as 1962 the NFL still had segregation, which was only done away with by brave athletes and coaches daring to speak their mind and do the right thing, and you’re going to say that political views have “no place in a sport”? I can’t even begin to fathom the cognitive dissonance that must be coursing through your rapidly addled mind right now; the mental gymnastics your brain has to tortuously contort itself through to make such a preposterous statement are surely worthy of an Olympic gold medal (the Russian judge gives you a 10 for “beautiful oppressionism”).

Of course, Burns is one of those people who think gay marriage will somehow, magically, ruin his own marriage. Kluwe’s got that covered, too:

I can assure you that gay people getting married will have zero effect on your life. They won’t come into your house and steal your children. They won’t magically turn you into a lustful cockmonster.

Brutal, but deserved.

The Maryland House of Delegates isn’t Burns’ only platform from which to denounce equality. He’s also the pastor of a church in Baltimore County. And while black ministers like Burns have sometimes“>sometimes found themselves villanized in the drive to legalize same-sex marriage, recent polling has shown that Marylanders, including 55 percent of black voters, want to beat back the referendum in November.

Burns is behind the curve, it seems, on both the sense of his state and, now, the NFL. And if anyone wants to applaud Chris Kluwe, the Vikings are visiting the Redskins on October 14.