You can say what you want about Curt Schilling, but don’t accuse the former Major League Baseball pitcher of failing to speak his mind.
Schilling certainly spoke his mind Tuesday, when the current ESPN baseball analyst voiced some rather strong opinions about Hillary Clinton during an appearance on Kansas City’s 610 Sports Radio, at one point claiming the Democratic presidential candidate should be “buried under a jail somewhere.”
That’s obviously not a good look for ESPN, which said Wednesday it’s “addressing” Schilling’s comments and revealed it recently sent out new guidelines telling employees to refrain from “political editorializing” during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Schilling joined WEEI’s “Dennis & Callahan” on Thursday morning to speak about his comments and ESPN’s reaction.
“ESPN had sent out a memo talking about on-air talent talking politics,” the former Boston Red Sox pitcher said. “Right hand to God, I didn’t get that until about two weeks ago because it was in my span folder. But that is not an excuse.”
“My assumption was they didn’t want us talking politics in an ESPN setting,” he added. “I’m assuming that ended up probably not being right, but I haven’t heard from anybody, I haven’t heard anything. The challenge for me was it was an hour. I was talking with Rex Hudler, a former teammate of mine … we talked for 55 minutes about everything — baseball, teammates, stories. And this came at the end, and this is the thing (everyone is talking about).”
Schilling has stirred the pot with controversial political comments before, but at the end of the day, he’s still sticking to his guns.
“People assume I am saying things to rile other people up,” Schilling said. “I say what I believe and I am passionate about the things I believe in. That doesn’t make me right, it makes me me.”
Thumbnail photo via Jerry Lai/USA TODAY Sports Images
