Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III said he “was very unhappy” with the comments former ESPN commentator Rob Parker made about him last December in which he called Griffin a “cornball brother.” Parker was fired for making those remarks.
Griffin, though, said he does not want to “stick it” to Parker and that there was “some wrong” in Parker’s losing his job because of those comments. Parker, on ESPN’s First Take, said then:
“My question, which is just a straight honest question: Is he a brother, or is he a cornball brother?… He’s black, he kind of does his thing, but he’s not really down with the cause. He’s not one of us.”
Parker also suggested Griffin may not be seen as being “black enough” because he had white fiancee to whom he is now married and also said Griffin may be a Republican and implied that somehow that would be a bad thing.
Griffin said in an interview with GQ.
“I haven’t blown the song up, because I don’t think it’s right to make fun of Rob Parker for losing his job,” he says. “There’s some wrong in what he said, but there’s some wrong in him losing his job as well. And I don’t want people to think that I, you know, that I’m trying to stick it to Rob Parker, or that I’m happy he lost his job. But I was very unhappy with the things he said. I mean, why did he say that?”
During the interview, a called “Changed the Game” came on at the Redskins workout facility. The song is by “Quistar, a rapper from Waco, Texas, who knows Griffin from their high-school days”:
“I’m labeled a thug because I come from the gutter / Robert made it out now he a cornball brother–what? / That was such a stupid argument / Now Rob Parker working at the supermarket, ha!!!”
Griffin, though, acknowledged that he does not want to play up the song to make fun of Parker for losing his job and was more than aware of the song’s lyrics.
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