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ESPN Will Not Retain Rob Parker, Whose Contract Expired At The End Of 2012

The final two months of 2012 did not treat ESPN’s Rob Parker very well. First he jumped to the defense of Miguel Cabrera as AL MVP on Twitter, ranting against “stat geeks” in reference to the sabermetric community’s overwhelming support of Mike Trout for the award. Then, Parker and ESPN’s First Take tried to ruin your weekend by expanding to Saturdays, with Parker as the show’s host. Later in the month, Parker’s noteriety exploded for inappropriately calling Robert Griffin III a “cornball brother”, and ESPN suspended him 30 days for the comment. Though Parker did apologize, he continued to insist that Griffin III pushes away black people in his first public interview after the suspension.

But it appears now that ESPN has had enough. According to John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal, Parker’s contract with ESPN, which expired at the end of 2012, has not been renewed. Here’s the network’s statement on Parker, via Ourand’s tweets:

ESPN: “Evaluating our needs and [Rob Parker's] work, including his recent RGIII comments, we decided not to renew his deal.”

— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) January 8, 2013

ESPN: “Rob Parker’s contract expired at year’s end.Evaluating our needs and his work…we decided not to renew his deal.”

— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) January 8, 2013

Ourand speculates that Parker’s comments “hit a nerve” with ESPN, and pushed his pink slip through the final hurdle. This would make sense given the timeline, since ESPN likely wouldn’t just suspend an employee only to turn around and fire him. There must have been a second trigger, and the only thing Parker has done since the suspension is not back down from his “cornball brother” comments.

Or not. Per Ourand:

Source: ESPN made the decision to end its relationship with Rob Parker before his ClickOn Detroit interview was published.

— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) January 8, 2013

[@Ourand_SBJ]

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