CLEVELAND, OH  --  Cleveland Browns quarterback Brady Quinn is accused of being part of a group of men who shouted insults at gay passers-by outside a Columbus bar early on New Year's Day.

One of the alleged victims, Seth Harris, made a 911 call to Columbus police and reported that he encountered the group in front of a Mexican restaurant that is next door to the Union Café Bar + Food, one of Columbus' most popular gay bars in the gay-friendly Short North neighborhood.

On the 911 call, Harris said that "Brady Quinn from the Browns" was "trying to cause a fight." Harris told the operator, "I just walked outside and he exchanged many profanities with me and called me a faggot, of course."

When talking to The Plain Dealer Monday, Harris confirmed that Quinn was the person who used the slur.

"I knew who it was," he said. "It wasn't just directed at me, there were other people around, too."

He said Quinn was with a "big group" of friends numbering perhaps 10, and that the quarterback "wasn't as involved as" others were in stirring up trouble. "He was standing back and letting his friends do most of it," Harris said.

In a statement released Wednesday through the Browns, Quinn said he had dinner on New Year's Eve with his girlfriend and other couples but that nothing else happened.

"At no time that night was I involved in a verbal or physical altercation, nor did I have any interaction with the police," Quinn said in the statement. "I want to be clear that I did not engage in any of the alleged conduct, nor did I make inappropriate comments to anyone.

"Any allegations to the contrary are either untrue or the result of misidentification."

However, Columbus police said when they arrived on the scene they found Quinn in the midst of an argument with 32-year-old Jason Thompson.

Quinn was a 2007 first-round draft pick of the Browns. He played high school football in the Columbus suburb of Dublin.

Last update: 02-13-2008 18:51