Sports radio host Colin Cowherd is out at ESPN, even earlier than expected.
“Colin Cowherd’s comments over the past two days do not reflect the values of ESPN or our employees,” ESPN said in a statement on Friday. “Colin will no longer appear on ESPN.”
“I’ve never bought into that ‘baseball is just too complex,’” Cowherd had said on Thursday. “A third of the sport is from the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic is not been known, in my lifetime, as having, you know, world-class academic abilities.’
“I mean, a lot of those kids come from rough backgrounds and have not had opportunities academically that other kids from other countries have,” he continued on his radio show “The Herd.”
After rolling the controversial Thursday tape himself, Cowherd reacted to his own rant.
“I could’ve made the point without using one country, and there’s all sorts of smart people from the Dominican Republic,” Cowherd said in an apology Friday. “I could’ve said a third of baseball’s talent is being furnished from countries with economic hardships, therefore educational hurdles. For the record, I used the Dominican Republic because they’ve furnished baseball with so many great players.
“I understand that when you mention a specific country, they get offended,” he continued. “I get it. I do. And for that, I feel bad. I do.”
Cowherd then pointed to data that backed up his opinion about education in the DR.
The MLB also condemned Cowherd on Friday, saying the following: “Major League Baseball condemns the remarks made by Colin Cowherd, which were inappropriate, offensive and completely inconsistent with the values of our game. Mr. Cowherd owes our players of Dominican origin, and Dominican people generally, an apology.”
Cowherd was departing ESPN anyway, now the split comes just sooner than originally planned. He is now set to join Fox Sports as its potential new face. The moderately known personality is tight with Fox Sports President Jamie Horowitz, who produced a couple of Cowherd’s shows while both were with ESPN.
Fox Sports did not immediately respond to TheWrap‘s request for comment on the new development.
Recently, other big ESPN personalities Bill Simmons and Keith Olbermann also departed the Disney company.
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