On Thursday, ESPN decided that it had had enough of Curt Schilling’s awful attempts at political discourse on the internet. The network released a statement notifying the public that Schilling would be removed from broadcasting MLB games for the rest of the season.
At all times during the course of their engagement with us, our commentators are directly linked to ESPN and are the face of our brand. We are a sports media company. Curt’s actions have not been consistent with his contractual obligations nor have they been professionally handled; they have obviously not reflected well on the company. As a result, he will not appear on ESPN through the remainder of the regular season and our Wild Card playoff game.
Schilling got himself into trouble last month when he posted a Tweet comparing modern day Muslims with 1940s Germany. ESPN removed him from their Little League World Series coverage and Schilling apologized for posting the offending message.
However, earlier this week Schilling sent an email to Awful Announcing, lambasting them for, well, covering the Tweet and its implications and, importantly, Schilling stated that he would not apologize for the content of the meme that got him in trouble.
After that went public (Schilling did not want the email to be published), it wasn’t like ESPN had much choice left in the matter but to shelve Schilling for the rest of the season and hope that he learns that when he Tweets, he’s not only representing his own highly questionable political opinions but also that of the very network that employs him.
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