ESPN suspended Curt Schilling last week after the former MLB pitcher and current baseball analyst/broadcaster sent out yet another controversial tweet. This time it will cost him dearly.
Schilling has been removed from all ESPN baseball telecasts for the remainder of the 2015 MLB season, according to a press release from ESPN Media Zone.
Here's the organization's official statement:
"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 was first suspended from being in the broadcast booth for the Little League World Series. He was then taken off the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast for the matchup between the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers this past weekend, during which Cubs' starter Jake Arrieta threw a no-hitter. Then his email exchange with sportswriter Dan Levy was posted on Awful Announcing this week, which perhaps left ESPN with no choice but to further punish Schilling.
The 20-year MLB veteran defended the context of his tweet, which stated, "It's said only 5-10% of Muslims are extremists. In 1940, only 7% of Germans were Nazis. How'd that go?"
He believes he was a victim of the media (and others who found it offensive) because it's been widely misconstrued he was equating Muslims to Nazis. Here's how he explained himself to Levy:
"And for what it is worth I apologized for tweeting," Schilling wrote. "The forum was about as poor a choice as I could have made in trying to elicit a potential discussion on that topic. I did not, and will not apologize for the content of the tweet. If you, or anyone else, can't wrap your head around your native language enough to understand that omitting words, or adding them, is plain and simple lying when it comes to journalism. Oh and it changes the content of a quote when you do that too. But you already knew that. But to paraphrase, when a radical minority is opposed by a silent and weak majority, really really bad stuff can, and has, and likely will again, happen."
Whatever the case, he's 100% right that Twitter was, and always will be, the incorrect forum to document such beliefs, especially when coming from a public figure.
But for all the Schilling fans out there, you won't get to see him on ESPN broadcasts until next season.
