Never one for holding back inflammatory opinions, former ESPN commentator Curt Schilling accused his ex-employer of hiring “some of the biggest racists in sports commentating.”

“Some of the most racist things that I’ve ever heard come out of people that are on the air at ESPN,” Schilling said. “There are some of the biggest racists in sports commentating. You take it for what it is. You know who they are. You know what they are. I like that they are, openly, because then you know who they are. You know that they exist.”

The comments came in an interview on SiriusXM radio’s “Breitbart News Patriot Forum” on Wednesday. Schilling was fired by ESPN last week after he posted an anti-transgender meme on his Facebook page. The outspoken former Red Sox star had previously been suspended by ESPN for posting a meme comparing the number of extremist Muslims today to the number of Nazis during WWII.


In the radio interview, Schilling said ESPN was more permitting of liberal political opinions than conservative ones.

“It was apparent to me early on that if you wanted to go off topic as a sportsperson, you had to go off topic left or you were going to get into trouble,” he said.

In addition, he said other ESPN employees confided in him quietly that they were Republicans.

“I had people come up to me and go, [whispering] ‘Hey, I’m with you. I’m a Republican, too.’ It felt like the underground. It was like a deadly serious thing,” Schilling said. “Like religion on the table was a much easier discussion than who you voted for.”

In a separate portion of the interview, Schilling said he was human and had his own biases and hypocrisies, including in performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.