Former Patriots running back Craig James has filed a complaint with the Texas Workforce Commission, saying that FOX Sports discriminated against him on the basis of his religion when it took him off the air after one week as a college football commentator.
When James lost his job with FOX Sports Southwest, a network spokesman was quoted as saying James didn’t fit in with the company because of the anti-gay statements he had made when he ran for the United States Senate in 2012. James is now claiming that by firing him for his anti-gay statements, FOX discriminated against him for his religious beliefs. James’s representatives called FOX taking him off the air an “outrageous example of workplace bigotry against people of faith.”
During his campaign, James criticized another candidate for attending a gay pride parade and said homosexuals “are going to have to answer to the Lord for their actions.” James, who quit a previous job at ESPN to run for Senate, received just 4 percent of the vote in the Republican primary. He attempted to get back into broadcasting after his political defeat but has not been on the air other than that one week at FOX Sports Southwest.
FOX Sports has described James as “a polarizing figure” and says that’s the real reason it doesn’t want him on the air. This complaint will do nothing to change the perception that James is polarizing.
