ESPN fires Curt Schilling after his anti-trans comments and defense of them

schillingCurt Schilling’s most recent controversy over his repost of a Facebook meme mocking trans people and his added “the men’s room was designed for the penis” commentary has finally led to his termination from ESPN, which the company announced Wednesday night. Here’s the entirety of their two-sentence release:

ESPN is an inclusive company. Curt Schilling has been advised that his conduct was unacceptable and his employment with ESPN has been terminated.

While it’s interesting to see Schilling fired over this and not the other controversies he’s caused, such as the 38 Studios sagahis August comparison of Muslims and Nazis, his angry e-mails to writers and his desire to see Hilary Clinton “buried under a jail,” there are a few likely reasons for that. For one, this was probably thanks to the accumulation of all the issues over the years. For another, in contrast to the other cases. Schilling was utterly unapologetic this time, blaming those who were “hunting to be offended” in a blog postand ardently defending his position on WEEI Wednesday. Here’s the link to the post he tweeted Tuesday:

Schilling has shown a willingness to challenge ESPN’s no-politics policies (once he got them out of his spam folder), and he particularly showed that here. The company said after previous controversies that they were “addressing” things with him, but that doesn’t appear to have had any effect. While there may be some blowback for ESPN from this decision, Schilling’s stubbornness probably helped them decide to make that call. As we’ve seen before, ESPN is often more concerned with insubordination than statements.

MORE: ESPN fires Curt Schilling after his anti-trans comments and defense of them

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