ESPN Will Keep Curt Schilling off Baseball Tonight for Rest of Season

Photo via AP

ESPN says it will keep former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling off its Baseball Tonight broadcast for the remainder of the season, following his initial suspension for posting a meme comparing radical Muslims to Nazis.

“At all times during the course of their engagement with us, our commentators are directly linked to ESPN and are the face of our brand,” ESPN said in a statement. “We are a sports media company. Curt’s actions have not been consistent with his contractual obligations, nor have they been professionally handled; they have obviously not reflected well on the company. As a result, he will not appear on ESPN through the remainder of the regular season and our Wild Card playoff game.”

ESPN originally yanked Schilling off its baseball broadcasts, including the Little League World Series. “Curt’s tweet was completely unacceptable, and in no way represents our company’s perspective,” ESPN vice president of communications Josh Krulewitz said in a statement at the time. “We made that point very strongly to Curt and have removed him from his current Little League assignment pending further consideration.”

Schilling apologized on Twitter, only to engage in a heated email exchange with sports blog Awful Announcing not long after. Meanwhile, Airbnb replaced Schilling with Tim Wakefield for its “Night at Fenway Park” promotion this week.

“Mr. Schilling’s comments are wholly inconsistent with our community’s values and we have ended our partnership with him, effective immediately,” Airbnb said in a statement. “Our partnership with the Red Sox and our Night At Fenway Park event will move forward as planned.”