In an interview with Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan on Tuesday, Adam Jones responded to Curt Schilling’s assertion that he was lying about being called the N-word at Fenway Park in early May, saying the former Boston Red Sox pitcher doesn’t have the experience of being a black outfielder.
But while that seems like something a white pitcher could agree with, Schilling doubled down, insisting to WEEI on Tuesday the Baltimore Orioles center fielder made the whole story up.
“If he wants to maintain the lie he made here, that’s fine,” Schilling said in a text message to WEEI.com. “No one denies racism exists, but when people like him lie about an incident and others just take him at his word, it perpetuates a mythical level of racism. And for some reason, it appears blacks believe only blacks can talk about racism and only whites can be racists.
“I promise you if some scumbag yelled the N-word at Adam Jones in Fenway, it would have been on Twitter, Facebook and every other social media site ASAP, like every other ‘incident.’ Not to mention the liberal Boston media would have broken its neck to identify the racist. But just taking him at his word means there are a bunch of white cowards and racists living here because no one stood up to the guy.”
Jones’ comments toward Schilling came with some obvious dislike, as he told Passan, “He just wants an outlet. Somebody will take his call, take his rants. He can keep them for himself.” However, Jones’ response to how many times he’s been called a racial slur in Boston ended up being a commentary on baseball in general.
“To me, a few,” Jones said. “To others? Now, you can’t just single out Boston. That would be a cop-out. You go around the whole nation, and you hear fans get nasty.”
But even after that, Schilling still believes Jones is trying to make a story out of nothing.
“Adam has an agenda and one needs to only look at his past commentary on race and racism to see it,” Schilling said. “But see, when you question fake hate crimes in this day and age it somehow makes you a racist. If you use this use every word or none at all.”
Thumbnail photo via Jerry Lai/USA TODAY Sports Images
