Rob Parker didn’t get fired for his statements regarding Robert Griffin III.

From ESPN:

“ESPN has decided to suspend Rob Parker for 30 days for his comments made on last Thursday’s episode of First Take. Our review of the preparation for the show and the re-air has established that mistakes both in judgment and communication were made. As a direct result, clearly inappropriate content was aired and then re-aired without editing. Both were errors on our part. 

“To address this, we have enhanced the editorial oversight of the show and have taken appropriate disciplinary measures with the personnel responsible for these failures. We will continue to discuss important issues in sports on First Take, including race. Debate is an integral part of sports and we will continue to engage in it on First Take. However, we believe what we have learned here and the steps we have taken will help us do all that better.”

Couple of things:

This is about what I expected. In most cases, not all, ESPN allows for second chances depending on the circumstances. I don’t think the network wants to get rid of Parker.

Also, the part about enchancing “the editorial oversight of the show” would seem to suggest Parker’s position on RGIII might have been brought up at a pre-show production meeting. Perhaps not in those exact words which eventually caused all the trouble, but something was discussed.

Given what happened, on sensitive topics such as race, I’m betting ESPN will want the dialogue to be played out more fully before the show to avoid these situations again.