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ESPN Analyst Asks if Redskins Quarterback Is a ‘Cornball Brother’ Because He Has a White Fiancee and May Vote Republican

Dec. 13, 2012 4:50pm Christopher Santarelli

ESPN Reporter Asks if RGIII Is a Cornball Brother Because He Has a White Fiancee and May Vote Republican

Rob Parker on ESPN’s First Take (youtube)

ESPNNY.com and ClickOnDetroit.com columnist Rob Parker made controversial comments on race and Washington Redskins Quarterback Robert Griffin III during an appearance on ESPN “First Take” Thursday, culminating with the African-American sports reporter questioning whether the quarterback is a “cornball brother” because he has a white fiancee and may vote Republican.

Griffin has had a successful rookie season thus far and is attempting to practice and appear on the field this Sunday after leaving his last game against the Baltimore Ravens following a significant knee injury. During a press conference Wednesday, questions for the 22-year-old veered away from his knee to race, where Griffin said he wanted to be defined by his work ethic, character and personality, not the color of his skin.

“I don’t ignore it. I try not to be defined by it,” Griffin said. “But I understand different perspectives and how people view different things. I understand that they’re excited that their quarterback is an African-American. I play with a lot of pride, a lot of character, a lot of heart. I understand that. I appreciate them for being fans and not just fans because they’re African-Americans.”

After these eloquent remarks from Griffin Wednesday, a Thursday discussion on the ESPN talk show First Take–which is familier to controversy–on race and Griffin’s answer became very ugly.

After hearing Griffin’s remarks, Parker said they raise a red flag to him, and he wants to know if the Redskins quarterback is “a brother, or a cornball brother.”

When the stunned fellow panelists asked Parker what that question means, he responded with additional comments that were immediately criticized across the Internet. As transcribed by The Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg:

“Well, [that] he’s black, he kind of does his thing, but he’s not really down with the cause, he’s not one of us,” Parker explained. “He’s kind of black, but he’s not really the guy you’d really want to hang out with, because he’s off to do something else.”

Why is that your question, Parker was asked.

“Well, because I want to find out about him,” Parker said. “I don’t know, because I keep hearing these things. We all know he has a white fiancée. There was all this talk about he’s a Republican, which, there’s no information [about that] at all. I’m just trying to dig deeper as to why he has an issue. Because we did find out with Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods was like I’ve got black skin but don’t call me black. So people got to wondering about Tiger Woods early on.”

Parker has been criticized for controversial reports and comments in the past. He resigned from the Detroit News after asking Detroit Lions head coach Rod Marinelli during a losing season if he wishes his daughter married a different defensive coordinator, as the current one was Marinelli’s son-in-law. In 2008, he erroneously reported that Michigan State Quarterback Kirk Cousins was involved in an off-campus fight when it was later revealed he was with his parents at a hotel that night to go to church together the next morning.

When panelist Skip Bayless asked Parker Thursday about Griffin’s hairstyle, the reporter responded “To me, that’s very urban and makes you feel like…wearing braids, you’re a brother. You’re a brother if you’ve got braids on.”

Following the stunning remarks, fellow panelist and African-American Stephen A. Smith responded after a long pause “Well first of all let me say this: I’m uncomfortable with where we just went.

“RGIII, the ethnicity, the color of his fiancée is none of our business. It’s irrelevant. He can live his life any way he chooses. The braids that he has in his hair, that’s his business, that’s his life. I don’t judge someone’s blackness based on those kind of things. I just don’t do that. I’m not that kind of guy.”

Watch video of the controversial comments below:

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Comments (250)

Diane TX
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:51pm
What’s a “cornball brother”? Then Stephen Smith says something about the braids in RGIII’s ****. Are corn ball and corn rows the same thing?

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- crackerone
  Posted on December 13, 2012 at 7:28pm
  Cornrows, Jeri curl’s and cornhole’s good…….cornball’s bad. :(
  
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- repairsea
  Posted on December 13, 2012 at 8:07pm
  The liberals always come up with another racist term. I was actually given a list of racist beliefs that I needed to be careful I didn’t commit in college. I had never heard of any of them but the liberal educational system knew them all. Bizarre.
  
  Report this comment
poster
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:51pm
Haven’t watched ESPN in years. Same with NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNBC, and all of their afilliated networks. I go with Drudge and Netflix!

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- redandbluearethesame
  Posted on December 14, 2012 at 12:32am
  I’m sure that is working out well for you….or at least for your family and coworkers that constantly laugh at your low information ****. Seriously dude, not cool, you can’t have wisdom without perspective.
  
  Report this comment
mbean
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:51pm
Rob Parker made the race baiting comments not Glenn Beck

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The-Monk
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:50pm
@trollmonger,

Guess who didn’t shoot up a mall in Oregon and kill people?

It wasn’t an old white male Beck supporter. It was someone your age with a stolen gun……

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foxrocks
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:50pm
Yepper, Race baiter Rob, didn’t say a word about Kobe Bryants white girl affair, Kris Humphries with Kim K, etc, but now RG3 on of the nicest class acts, Rob wants him to act like a “brother”…ESPN, most racist network out there, along with MSNBC……..

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- Tax Revolt
  Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:59pm
  Isn’t Kim with Kanye now? You know it is funny that many black folk out there look at a white person and automatically think racist, yet they can’t stop going after the white women. Who really is the racist. It is them, the ones that hate whitey but want a white woman.
  
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elosogrande
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:49pm
This buffoon is a perfect example of a racist. There’s absolutely no question about it.

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KangarooJack
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:49pm
omg! LOL just LOL!!!

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- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on December 13, 2012 at 6:14pm
  I read your other comments on similar stories and I can see exactly where you are coming from. Now, to beat all TROLLMONGER will get on here and call us all racist as he usually does. Oh wait, this story is about sports. He probably will not show up here then because the only balls that he plays with…………
  
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garbagecanlogic
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:47pm
Does espn only high stoooopid people? Forget that – I already know the answer.

Praise Be To Obama. Psalm 109:8

The U.S. Out Of The U.N.
The U.N. Out Of The U.S.

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- Tax Revolt
  Posted on December 13, 2012 at 6:00pm
  No but apparently they hire racists.
  
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- SovereignSoul
  Posted on December 13, 2012 at 6:23pm
  What exactly does…” high stoooopid people”…mean?
  
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Fubared
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:46pm
Monger, much to your dismay he preaches tolerance and non violence, which many of us have an extremely hard time with; given the toads and trolls one must encounter daily in life and here in the ether. Love you man, would like nothing better than to take you hunting for a day, and maybe not bring you back, but that is another story.

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DZ-015
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:40pm
News is news, Trollmungus.

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scuba13
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:40pm
So you are angry that the Blaze keeps posting these stories on race, yet you keep reading and commenting about them. You really are an idiot.

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1776freedomofspeech
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:39pm
Don’t like it when your team is in the wrong?

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mbean
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:38pm
Breaking: ESPN’s Rob Parker quesitons the Phillie Phanatic’s “greenness”

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DZ-015
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:35pm
And Rush Limbaugh got run out of sports commentary for far more innocuous remarks,

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BlueJDN
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:32pm
I’m not a big fan of Stephen A. Smith. But kudos to him for his response to Parker.

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- Landon410
  Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:46pm
  oh I normally can’t stand the man, but he is right, that went somewhere it shouldn’t have
  
  its all about race, its about the outside apearance to the left…. they dont care that Griffin was a great student, never got in trouble, both parents were military, they only care about how “black” he is…
  
  seriously? this is why you can’t argue with the left
  
  Report this comment
emoore54
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:30pm
The world is going to hell. It is not racism, it is hate for someone who does not think like you do. Period. The left is like a train hurtling down the tracks and no brakes. The guy who said it is an ignoramus.

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mbean
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:28pm
Al Sharpton and MSNBC will criticize this racism right?

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1776freedomofspeech
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:26pm
No that is not racist at all.

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ResistSocialism
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:20pm
how black is that

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Cavallo
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:19pm
Certain people are allowed to say certain things because of their politics and skin color. Others would be looking for work in a new industry by now. ESPN should be ashamed but they are not. This is who ESPN is.

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- horsehockey
  Posted on December 14, 2012 at 10:40am
  “…skin color.”
  
  Exactly, this guy should have been given the hook for his comments and instantly terminated, but because of his skin color, he will still have a job at ESPN. ESPN, your hypocrisy is showing.
  
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normalmom
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:16pm
No jerk it just means he isn’t racist like you!!

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BasketFullOfPuppies
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:16pm
I think the thing that bothers me the most, is that this idiot has absolutely no idea how wrong his line of thought was. That’s ok. It’s his line of thought and he has a right to it. But, if I were his employer, I would question whether I want to PAY for his opinion, as it is very obviously flawed.

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tothepoint
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:11pm
Black racism continues on in this country.
God bless anyone of any color who does not embrace the lefty anti-American stance. This rant against
the quarterback is a sample of the low-class mentality of ridicule that we see in the media.

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thegreatcarnac
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:06pm
Well…his fiancee’ is a WIso(WHITE IN SKIN ONLY). She is a traitor.

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- Twobyfour
  Posted on December 13, 2012 at 8:55pm
  You must be a democrat. Any relation to late Robert “Sheets” Byrd?
  
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M13
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:04pm
Racism still alive and well at ESPN, what else is new?

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- travis
  Posted on December 13, 2012 at 5:14pm
  i’ve been saying it for years. espn is the most racist channel on tv. i’m tired of it.
  
  Report this comment
- savagenatn
  Posted on December 14, 2012 at 4:47am
  haven’t watched espn in over a decade beacuse of their constant race baiting and obsession with race. for crying out loud get over the color of people’s skin you morons
  
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