Keith Law, a baseball writer and analyst for ESPN, has been noticeably quiet on Twitter recently (as of this posting, Law’s last tweet was on November 19th).
According to Deadspin, Law’s absence from Twitter isn’t his own doing. He’s reportedly been suspended by ESPN for clashing with creationist and fellow ESPN analyst Curt Schilling over evolution.
Heavy-tweetin’ ESPN baseball writer Keith Law has been noticeably silent for the last couple of days. That’s no coincidence—he’s been given a Twitter timeout by ESPN, and we’re told that it’s for loudly and repeatedly defending Charles Darwin from transitional fossil Curt Schilling, his Bristol colleague.
Schilling memorably went off the rails against evolution in a Twitter tirade earlier this month. Law couldn’t let Schilling’s rants go unchecked.
@gehrig38 @zoowithroy You can't have fossils "between" two species if one didn't descend from the other – e.g., monkeys and humans.
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) November 13, 2014
Seriously, if someone says evolution is wrong because there aren't fossils between monkeys and men, find a monkey and hit him with it.
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) November 13, 2014
@gehrig38 @zoowithroy There are hundreds of transitional fossils on record, Curt. http://t.co/cmTiqzhtC5
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) November 13, 2014
@gehrig38 @zoowithroy Yes. It's a strong, well-sourced article. Feel free to send refutations of those transitional fossils.
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) November 13, 2014
ESPN does have a history of handing out punishments when its rank-and-file air out their spats publicly. Tony Kornheiser was suspended for criticizing ESPN on his radio show. Bill Simmons got his Twitter account suspended for trashing ESPN’s First Take. Simmons was also suspended for three weeks for calling Roger Goodell a liar and then challenging ESPN higher-ups to suspend him over it. Max Kellerman was even suspended for for daring to bring up domestic violence on a radio program after ESPN had warned its personalities to not bring the subject up on air. In other words, ESPN has a history of coming down hard on employees who make unwanted waves.
Law will reportedly be allowed back on Twitter on Monday according to a Deadspin source.
Oh, and Schilling? Totally not suspended from Twitter.