Sports analyst Jemele Hill's political opinions have garnered her mainstream media attention over the last few weeks. First, she made headlines for calling Donald Trump a white supremacist and then she went on to suggest fans boycott the advertisers of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones; after his stance on players kneeling during the anthem.
She received a two-week suspension for the latter statement. ESPN said the suspension was for a second violation of the network's social media guidelines. Many people were outraged at the suspension because Hill's job is to analyze sports and what's happening in sports. Others thought it was a "fireable offense" including the White House press secretary.
Hill weighed in on the suspension after TMZ Sports caught up with her for an impromptu interview, and she said she deserved the suspension because she put her employer in a tight spot. However, she did not take back her comments or remarks.
Read what she had to say:
"So, here’s how this works: It doesn’t really matter what I think. It matters to people, but here’s the reality: ESPN acted what they felt was right, and, you know, I don’t have any argument or quibble with that. I would tell people, absolutely, after my Donald Trump tweets, I deserved that suspension. I deserved it. Like, absolutely. I violated the policy; I deserved that suspension.The only thing I’ll ever apologize for is, I put ESPN in a bad spot. I’ll never take back what I said. I put them in a bad spot, that’s the truth of it. I regret the position I put them in. I regret, a lot of the people I work with, the position we put our show in. I’ll never take back what I said.”
