Curt Schilling not backing down from comments, again dares ESPN to fire him

Michael McCarthy

Curt Schilling not backing down from comments, again dares ESPN to fire him image

What can you say about Curt Schilling at this point? Not since Bill Simmons has anybody tried so hard to get himself fired from ESPN. He's a one-man wrecking crew for the beleaguered PR staff in Bristol. It makes me wonder whether the former major league pitcher already has an offer from Fox Sports/FS1 or another network and is daring the suits in Bristol to can him so he can sue them later.

In his latest head-scratcher, Schilling used his 38 Pitches blog to respond to criticism of his anti-transgender Facebook post. Basically, Schilling's response was: Don't blame me, blame yourself for being offended.

MORE: 7 controverial Schilling comments | Schilling one of baseball's most-hated

Let's have the Big Fella speak for himself, via a post titled "The Hunt to be Offended...":

This is likely the easiest way to address all of you out there who are just dying to be offended so you can create some sort of faux cause to rally behind. Let’s make one thing clear right up front. If you get offended by ANYTHING in this post, that’s your fault, all yours.

OK, it's a free country and Schilling has the right to say whatever he wants. But to be fair, ESPN did issue a memo warning its on-air talent to stay away from politics. But Schilling just can't help himself; in March he opined that Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton should be buried under a jail somewhere for her handling of classified emails.

SPECTOR: ESPN should have canned Schilling long time ago

Bottom line for ESPN: I warned about this weeks ago.

Now that ESPN has encouraged its on-air talent to "Embrace Debate," the network can't get it to shut up.

Look, Schilling's just the beginning, folks. We're in a presidential election year. As we move closer to the summer political conventions and November election, good luck to ESPN trying to stop its talkers from bloviating about their politics.

I suspect Schilling may have finally gone too far with his bosses at ESPN this time. As this article was being published, there was still no comment on Schilling. That could mean the lawyers are looking at his contract and figuring out a way to drop him. (UPDATE: ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz released a one-sentence statement Tuesday night: "We are taking this matter very seriously and are in the process of reviewing it.")

Or Schilling could escape the ESPN ax that has previously claimed Simmons, Jason Whitlock and Keith Olbermann. So far he has been Houdini at getting out of hot water, but you have to wonder if Schilling's time is up at the Worldwide Leader.

Michael McCarthy

Michael McCarthy Photo

Michael McCarthy is an award-winning journalist who covers Sports Meda, Business and Marketing for Sporting News. McCarthy’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC.com, Newsday, USA TODAY and Adweek.