ESPN sports commentator Rob Parker (pictured above) was finally given the boot by his employers on Tuesday as part of the fallout from his statements last month, when he questioned NFL Washington Football Team quarterback Robert Griffin III’s (RG3, pictured) Blackness, according to NFL.com.
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Parker was suspended 30 days for the racially charged comments he made on the sports show “First Take,” where he discussed the validity of RG3’s ethnicity and even mentioned the fact that the player had a White fiancée:
“[Is RG3]…a brother or a cornball brother…. He’s Black, he kind of does his thing, but he’s not really down with the cause, he’s not one of us. He’s kind of Black. But he’s not really the guy you’d really want to hang out with because he’s off to do something else.”
Watch Parker’s comments here:
After Parker was hit was with a ton of negative press, he posted a mea culpa via Twitter, but apparently, this was not enough. He then attempted to defend his actions further by appearing on the Detroit community affairs show “Flashpoint” earlier this month, stating, “I wasn’t saying that he wasn’t Black enough. When people say that, it’s just not true. I was saying these are the conversations that take place once a guy pushes away. So it was never aimed at him or I was calling him that [sic], I’m saying these are the conversations that take place.”
For now, ESPN has decided not to renew Parker’s contract. Mike Soltys, a vice president at the network, tweeted:
Mike Soltys
@espnmikesRob Parker’s contract expired at year-end. Evaluating our needs and his work, including his recent RGIII comments, we decided not to renew.
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