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ESPN announced Tuesday it has not renewed the contract of Rob Parker, the ESPN commentator who was suspended for 30 days late last year for his racially charged comments about Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III.
Mike Soltys, a vice president at the network, tweeted "Rob Parker’s contract expired at year end. Evaluating our needs and his work, including his recent RGIII comments, we decided not to renew."
Appearing on the show "First Take" in DeHember, Parker asked whether Griffin "was a brother or 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. He’s kind of black. But he’s not really the guy you’d really want to hang out with because he’s off to do something else.”
ESPN announced an indefinite suspension the following day and, after a review of the matter, later announced Parker would be suspended for 30 days.
Parker had no immediate comment, but he defended himself in an interview not long ago.
"I wasn’t saying that he wasn’t black enough," Parker said. "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."
Watch the video of the original comments above and judge for yourself.
