Colin Cowherd, the popular “know-it-all” talk show host, was ousted from ESPN for his anti-Dominican comments made on his show late last week. But with an exit strategy already in place with FOX Sports, many pundits argue that Cowherd’s exit aligned nicely with ESPN’s plans to cut him short all along.
As reported by The Interro Bang , WFAN’s own Mike Francessa argued that very point on his show last week.
“ESPN, in all of its righteousness, came out and announced they are firing Colin Cowherd,” Francesa said Friday, “Except one thing they didn’t put in the release, and that is Colin Cowherd already signed a new deal with FOX and is leaving next Friday.” He followed it up with “Can you be bigger fools?” claiming the move was hypocritical, making a big deal out of firing an employee who was already leaving.
Scott D. Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune agreed, claiming Colin’s anti-Dominican comments allowed ESPN to save face by branding Cowherd a racist.
“For a guy who has always made it clear just how smart he thinks he is, Colin Cowherd just exited ESPN in the dumbest way possible…Cowherd has a long history of making offensive comments — some racial, some not — but he was never disciplined by his employers in the 12 years he worked there. ESPN enabled him until a week before he was to leave.”
And therein lies the rub. Despite the racially insensitive remarks made by Cowherd, as reported by Inquisitr , Colin was going to leave anyway the end of his contract. So in essence, ESPN was able to wipe their hands clean and save face from what was surely going to be a blow to their programming lineup.
Cowherd’s troubles began when he went on his show Thursday July 23rd and began a rant about baseball not being as complex as football.
“The game is too complex? I’ve never bought into that ‘baseball is too complex.’ Really? A third of the sport is from the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic has not been known in my lifetime as having world-class academic abilities. A lot of those kids come from rough backgrounds and have not had opportunities academically that other kids from other countries have. Baseball is like any sport. It’s mostly instincts.”
He tried rationalizing his argument the next day, but was ultimately canned by ESPN at the end of the day for his remarks.
Pedro Martinez meanwhile, offered his take on Cowherd’s comments during his Hall-of-Fame induction week, burning him for insulting Dominican players.
“I’m sorry. He needs to get to my level to answer him… I’m in the Hall of Fame.”
No word yet whether Colin Cowherd’s racist remarks will affect his new position at FOX Sports.
[Photo credit: Al Messerschmidt / Getty Images]