Curt Schilling fired by ESPN after latest controversial foray into social media
Jared Wickerham/Getty Images
Former Major League Baseball pitcher Curt Schilling has been fired by ESPN from his role as baseball analyst after his latest controversial foray into social media, the company announced on Wednesday.
The move comes after Schilling shared a Facebook post in response to the North Carolina law that bars transgender people from using bathrooms that do not correspond to their gender of birth.
Here is a screencap of the post which has been deleted, via Outsports. Schilling included the following comment:
"A man is a man no matter what they call themselves. I don’t care what they are, who they sleep with, men’s room was designed for the penis, women’s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic."
Jared Wickerham/Getty Images
In announcing the termination, ESPN called Schilling's conduct "unacceptable" in a blunt, 2-sentence statement.
"ESPN is an inclusive company. Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated."
Schilling had previously been suspended by ESPN for posting a meme on Twitter that read "It's said only 5-10% of Muslims are extremists. In 1940, only 7% of Germans were Nazis. How'd that go?"
At the time, Schilling accepted his suspension, tweeting "100% my fault," and calling it a bad choice.
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/636262473826463744
I understand and accept my suspension. 100% my fault. Bad choices have bad consequences and this was a bad decision in every way on my part.
However, on Tuesday, Schilling addressed his critics on his personal blog in which he seemed to back-track from that apology and defended his most recent controversy.
And for you people too dense to understand this one very important thing. My opinion, 100% mine, and only mine. I don’t represent anyone but myself here, on facebook, on twitter, anywhere.
- The meme the world decided to rally behind that I posted months ago. The meme that some of you clowns and more of you spineless looking to be offended folks turned into something it was not. Every one of you gutless cowards, when ‘calling me out’ or calling me a racist, every one of you left out the only word in that entire meme that mattered. You had to, otherwise you’d have had to go elsewhere to find offense and create something out of nothing. Let me help you now. All of you fraudulent media folks, you lazy ass “don’t actually want to work for a story” clowns. The word you left out? the ONLY word that mattered? EXTREMIST. That word being omitted creates two completely different posts with two very different meanings. I don’t dislike or hate Muslims, or people of the Islamic faith. Ask my friends that are both. But then again you all knew that, but when you omit the word extremist you create a person that doesn’t exist and have a story with traction, even if it is a complete lie.
- This latest brew ha ha is beyond hilarious. I didn’t post that ugly looking picture. I made a comment about the basic functionality of mens and womens restrooms, period.