Craig James was a mainstay on college football broadcasts for more than 20 years before a brief--and embarrassing--run for the Senate from Texas in 2012. But now it looks like anti-gay comments he made on the campaign trail may have blackballed him from the broadcasting ranks.
During a Republican Senate primary debate in February 2012, James upbraided former Dallas mayor Tom Leppert for attending a gay pride parade, and declared that gays will have to "answer to the Lord for their actions." Well, two days later, ESPN told Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch that James wouldn't be returning to the network once the campaign ended.
On August 30, it was announced that James would be a co-host of Fox Sports Southwest's college football studio show. But after appearing on last week's show, Fox Sports Southwest abruptly cut ties with him before he formally signed a contract. Yesterday, Barry Horn of The Dallas Morning News found out why--apparently Fox Sports brass in LA weren't pleased with those debate comments. A Fox Sports spokesman put it bluntly: "We just asked ourselves how Craig’s statements would play in our human resources department. He couldn't say those things here."
It's pretty telling that James has been silent on this since then. No doubt he knows he stepped in it and now has to pay the piper.
(h/t to Pro Football Talk)