Two days after Rob Parker went on a Detroit television show and attempted to convince people his comments about Robert Griffin III were taken out of context and that he was not questioning RGIII's "blackness," ESPN announced that it was parting ways with the "First Take" panelist.
"Rob Parker's contract expired at year's end," a statement from the network read. "Evaluating our needs and his work, including his recent RGIII comments, we decided not to renew his deal."
Parker, who had been on the show for six years, was serving a 30-day suspension. A "First Take" producer also reportedly was suspended, apparently due to the fact the show re-aired repeatedly with the offensive comments unedited.
In other ESPN news, the network apologized on Tuesday for announcer Brent Musburger gushing about the girlfriend of Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron during Monday night's national championship game. Katherine Webb, the 2012 Miss Alabama, said she wasn't offended -- and her Twitter following has jumped about 200,000 since she was shown on TV during the game -- but ESPN felt the need to silence critics of the announcer's behavior.
"We always try to capture interesting storylines, and the relationship between an Auburn grad who is Miss Alabama and the current Alabama quarterback certainly met that test," the statement from ESPN read. "However, we apologize that the commentary in this instance went too far, and Brent understands that."
Read more about those stories and others -- including a rough day for brothers Rex and Rob Ryan -- plus check out videos, trivia and more, at Wednesday's Morning Mashup [1].
Links:
[1] http://leeinks.weei.com/sports/2013/01/09/wednesdays-morning-mashup-espn-fires-rob-parker-apologizes-for-brent-musburger
[2] http://www.weei.com/category/boston/general