Robert Griffin III may have recently urged sports shows to stick to sports, but the former NFL quarterback says Rob Parker is the reason.
Last week, Griffin tweeted “Sports shows on TV should be about sports not politics.” The social media post came about an hour after ESPN’s First Take ended, on a day where the show didn’t always adhere to Griffin’s request. While discussing Cooper Flagg, Jay Williams claimed the Duke star has the ability to rally the “America First” crowd because he is American born and white. Stephen A. Smith later spoke about the Department of Defense temporarily deactivating an article about Jackie Robinson’s military career and used that as an opportunity to challenge Donald Trump to a debate on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
Considering the timing of Griffin’s tweet, it was widely assumed that the former ESPN NFL analyst was referring to First Take. Griffin later attempted to clarify the tweet by insisting it wasn’t about Jackie Robinson, adding Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier and Jesse Owens winning four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany weren’t inherently political.
After facing backlash for the take and believing he was misunderstood, Griffin welcomed Smith on his Outta Pocket with RG3 podcast so the former quarterback could clarify his stick to sports opinion, while simultaneously not sticking to sports.
“13 years ago, Stephen A. on First Take. There was a conversation that happened on the show involving Rob Parker,” Griffin recalled. “Rob Parker talked about, was I a brother, was I a real brother, was I really down for the cause? And you know what his point was about why he asked that question? It had nothing to do with sports. It had nothing to do with my performance on the field. It was because my fiancé was white. It was because he thought I was a Republican.
“He made First Take, in that moment, a political forum for political attacks and personal conversations. Stephen A, that single conversation has followed me for 13 years of my professional career. As an athlete, and also in the media. When people in the Black community don’t agree with me, what do they do? They start posting Rob Parker memes. You can’t find a single instance of someone questioning my Blackness before that conversation happened on First Take. Stephen A, that’s why I feel sports shows on television should be about sports and not made political.
“Sports and politics always intertwine. What you said about Jackie Robinson wasn’t making the show political, but then removing it and turning it into a presidential campaign or ‘I want to debate these guys on this or that,’ to me, was emblematic or representative of what I went through with Rob Parker.”
It’s worth noting that Griffin doesn’t always abide by his own rule. He’s willing to use his social media platform and podcast to foster debates and conversations about political topics.
Still, Parker’s 13-year-old commentary about Robert Griffin III on First Take, however, didn’t just exit the realm of sports, it was designed to cause a firestorm through racial stereotypes. ESPN suspended Parker immediately, although that didn’t save Griffin from continuing to deal with memes about the incident more than a decade later.
But there is a big difference between Rob Parker’s commentary and Stephen A. Smith’s plea to debate Trump about DEI on First Take. Parker’s commentary was reckless, Smith’s was performative. Smith did not stick to sports, but he also didn’t say anything harmful.
Robert Griffin III is right to call Rob Parker out, and he’s right in asking sports shows and hosts to do much better than they did in that moment 13 years ago. But a blanket “Sports shows on TV should be about sports not politics,” probably isn’t the solve. Because hosts can be just as reckless and incendiary when sticking to sports.