Colin Cowherd "has been pulled from the air by ESPN for his offensive remarks" on MLBers of Dominican heritage on his radio show last week, according to Jorge Ortiz of USA TODAY. ESPN in a Friday statement said, "Colin Cowherd’s comments over the past two days do not reflect the values of ESPN or our employees. Colin will no longer appear on ESPN." Ortiz noted Cowherd's 12-year run at the network "was about to expire by mutual accord -- he's widely expected to join the Fox network -- but his show was still supposed to run through next Friday." Cowherd during Friday's show "attempted to clarify the remarks that started the firestorm, but only made matters worse." MLB and the MLBPA "independently denounced the remarks, even after Cowherd tried to remedy the situation." Cowherd’s explanation that his comments were taken out of context "did not satisfy officials from either organization," with MLB issuing a statement "demanding an apology." Cowherd complained that the second part of what he described as a 57-second rant "was not published in the numerous online items and tweets that decried his comments, and he mentioned four reports that detailed the educational deficiencies in the Dominican Republic." Cowherd called his wording "clunky." But he "stopped well short of an apology." He also "replayed the 'rant' to underscore his point" (USATODAY.com, 7/25). ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan said Cowherd had a “chance today to make it right to apologize and he stopped short of that” ("Around The Horn," ESPN, 7/24). In N.Y., Richard Sandomir cited sources as saying that Cowherd "was negotiating to leave on July 31 under a deal that would have given him an early release from a contract that expires on Dec. 31 and would have absolved ESPN from paying him any further." He "is expected to begin at Fox by the start of the NFL season" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/25).
HIGHER GROUND? In N.Y., Phil Mushnick notes ESPN execs "immediately fired" Cowherd "on the grounds that they don’t tolerate such conduct on their time and dime." Mushnick: "Bunk. Given that he already was headed for Fox and FS1, ESPN, again, is full of it." Had Cowherd "instead just re-upped, he’d have been slapped with ESPN’s usual one- or two-week suspension for impolitic speech." With the recent departure of "several ESPN attention-getters, Cowherd’s dismissal as per ESPN’s high-ground standards is only for dopes and/or the unfamiliar to buy" (N.Y. POST, 7/27).
