Rob Parker, the ESPN commentator whom the network fired on Tuesday, said on Sunday that he called Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III a “cornball brother” because he feels Griffin is the type of black athlete that pushes “away from their people.”
In an interview with a Detroit television station on Sunday, Parker said:
When asked if he was claiming that Griffin was not “black enough” for him, Parker denied he was doing that:
“I wasn’t saying that he wasn’t black enough,” Parker said. “And so 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. I’m saying these are the conversations that take place.”
When Parker initially made those comments, for which ESPN suspended him for a month, he said Griffin was a “cornball brother” and implied blacks were questioning his “blackness” because Griffin had a white fiance and may be a Republican.
He was due to return to the air this month.
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