UPDATE: ESPN just announced that Colin Cowherd is finished with the network. "Colin Cowherd's comments over the past two days do not reflect the values of ESPN or our employees," ESPN said in a statement. "Colin will no longer appear on ESPN." He will join Fox Sports sometime in the near future.
Colin Cowherd's run at ESPNis almost over—and something tells us the PR department at The Worldwide Leader in Sports couldn't be happier.
Cowherd has said and done a lot of really ridiculous things over the last decade or so. And during his show yesterday, he added to that list by making some comments about Dominican baseballs players—and the Dominican Republic as a whole—that aren't going over well with people.
While discussing the Marlins, Cowherd attacked the idea that the sport of baseball is "too complex" for some people. In doing so, he also took some shots at Dominican players and people.
"It's too complex?" he asked. "I've never bought into that 'baseball is too complex.' Really? A third of the sport is from the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic has not been known in my lifetime as having world class academic abilities. A lot of those kids come from rough backgrounds and have not had opportunities academically that other kids from other countries have. Baseball is like any sport. It's mostly instincts."
Cowherd's comments didn't go unnoticed in the baseball world. Last night, Blue Jays star Jose Bautista jumped on Twitter to take aim at Cowherd and to call for an explanation:
And according to a USA Today Sports report, the MLB Players' Association isn't real happy about the situation, either. Specifically, it sounds like they're upset about ESPN's lack of a response and/or apology in the wake of the controversial statements Cowherd made.
So far, Cowherd hasn't responded, but we would expect him to offer up an explanation on his show today. In the meantime, we imagine everyone in ESPN's PR department is doing this:
And we don't even blame them...
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[via Big League Stew]
