Inclined to defend footballers being vulgar (7)
I believe the answer is:
profane
'vulgar' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'inclined to defend footballers' is the wordplay.
'inclined' becomes 'prone' ('prone' can be similar in meaning to 'inclined'**).
'to defend' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'footballers' becomes 'fa' (Football Association abbreviation).
'prone' placed around 'fa' is 'PROFANE'.
'being' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for profane that I've seen before include "Secular; blasphemous" , "vulgar" , "Secular, not religious" , "Impious" , "Irreverent - pagan" .)