Colin Cowherd, a sock a teenage boy keeps under his mattress, is irritated. Yesterday, he said racist shit about how stupid and uneducated Dominicans are on his radio show. He feels that we took those comments out of context in a post we ran yesterday.
Here’s today’s complaint, via SportsGrid:
Cowherd addresses Deadspin within the first couple of minutes, but here’s a transcribed excerpt, also via SportsGrid:
I don’t think I should be defined by 16 seconds of a minute rant edited on a site owned by a blog company currently in a $100 million lawsuit for airing improper audio and videotape. I’ll run my 57 seconds that yesterday somebody edited, took a segment of, and said, ‘There’s institutional racism! That host should be fired!’ I’m not here to double down but I think I have a right to run the entire tape.
To satisfy Cowherd, we put his full thoughts below. In the clip, Cowherd expresses his belief that Bill Simmons’s move to HBO isn’t a major change, and compares it to the Marlins using general manager Dan Jennings as the team’s manager. Cowherd then talks about how baseball isn’t a complex sport, and cites as evidence that “a third of the sport is from the Dominican Republic.” He then goes on to clarify that what he means by that is that Dominicans are poor and badly-educated. What sense any of this makes is beyond us, but listen for yourself:
We’ve transcribed the relevant part, if you can’t listen:
By the way, it’s not like Bill Simmons, he’s slightly altering his format. He’s not becoming a brain surgeon. He’s not, the difference between writing, producing, TV, radio, I mean, I’ve proven it by writing a book, and I’m not a writer. Okay, so, you’re just altering things a little. It’s still communication.
I mean, the Marlins put a general manager in their dugout. People freaked out. You know, like, “Whoa!” It’s baseball. You don’t think a general manager can manage? Like it’s impossible? The game is too complex? Like, I’ve never bought into that. “Baseball’s too complex.” Really? 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. Baseball’s like any sport. It’s mostly instincts.
When reached for comment about Cowherd’s remarks, ESPN had this to say:
Some of Colin’s comments yesterday referencing the Dominican Republic were inappropriate and do not reflect ESPN’s values of respect for all communities. Colin’s on air response today addressed the importance of making sure his opinions are fact based and responsible for all people.
Contact the author at samer@deadspin.com.