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ESPN fires Curt Schilling over Facebook comments

By The Sports Xchange
Curt Schilling and Shonda Schilling. UPI/John Angelillo
Curt Schilling and Shonda Schilling. UPI/John Angelillo | License Photo

ESPN fired baseball analyst Curt Schilling on Wednesday, a day after one of his online posts received criticism from the transgender community.

Schilling reposted on Facebook a photo of a large man wearing a wig and women's clothes, with a caption that read, "LET HIM IN! to the restroom with your daughter or else you're a narrow-minded, judgmental, unloving racist bigot who needs to die."

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The post was apparently a response to the controversy over a new North Carolina law that wiped out local statutes allowing LGBT individuals to use the bathroom corresponding to the gender with which they identify.

Schilling added on Facebook, "A man is a man no matter what they call themselves. I don't care what they are, who they sleep with, men's room was designed for the penis, women's not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic."

He added in a blog posting, "If you get offended by ANYTHING in this post, that's your fault, all yours. And for you people too dense to understand this one very important thing. My opinion, 100% mine, and only mine. I don't represent anyone but myself here, on Facebook, on Twitter, anywhere."

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His former employer responded Wednesday with a statement that read, "ESPN is an inclusive company. Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated."

This week's post wasn't the first time Schilling's beliefs got him into trouble. He was suspended by ESPN during the 2015 baseball playoffs after he made controversial remarks about Muslims.

Earlier this year, Schilling told a Kansas City radio station that presidential candidate Hillary Clinton "should be buried under a jail somewhere (if she gave) classified information on hundreds if not thousands of emails on a public server."

James Andrew Miller, co-author of "Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN," told the New York Times, "If you are taking a paycheck from ESPN, you have to be extra careful about how you communicate publicly and always err on the side of caution and responsibility. ... It's not an unfair or impractical position for ESPN to hold."

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