WASHINGTON – ESPN will not renew the contract of a commentator who made racial comments about Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III.
On ESPN’s “First Take,” a debate-based talk show, Rob Parker questioned whether the Redskins rookie was “a brother” or a “cornball brother,” and went on to discuss how Griffin identifies as a black man.
Parker issued an apology on his Twitter account for the comments and was suspended by ESPN.
The network issued a statement saying: “Rob Parker’s contract expired at year’s end. Evaluating our needs and his work, including his recent RG III comments, we decided not to renew his deal.”
Meanwhile, Parker recently told WDIV- Detroit that he could see how people took his comments out of context and that they weren’t “off the cuff” in that others involved with the program knew “which way we were going” in the discussion ahead of time.
“It was never to condemn the young man – RG3 is a great young man with a bright future,” Parker said. “It was more about concerns not condemning him.”
(h/t TheGrio)
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