Former Sportscaster Sues, Says Fox Fired Him for Antigay Religious Beliefs

Former sportscaster Craig James has filed suit Fox Sports Southwest for discrimination, alleging he was fired because of his antigay religious beliefs.

"I will not let Fox Sports trample my religious liberty," James said in a written statement, The Dallas Morning News reports. "Many people have lost their jobs because of their faith. Sadly, countless are afraid to let their bosses know they even have a faith."

In the suit, filed Monday in Dallas County Circuit Court, James says Fox fired him because of comments he made in a Republican primary debate in 2012, among candidates seeking the party's nomination for a U.S. Senate seat from Texas. James chastised fellow candidate Tom Leppert for marching in Pride parades while he was mayor of Dallas, said being gay is a choice, expressed his opposition to marriage equality or even civil unions, and asserted that gay people will "have to answer to the Lord for their actions." James did not win the primary; the victory went to an equally antigay candidate, Ted Cruz, who won the general election as well and is now seeking the Republican presidential nomination.

James, a former Southern Methodist University football star with experience in broadcasting, was hired by Fox Sports Southwest the following year as a college football commentator. He worked one day, August 31, then was fired the next.

"We just asked ourselves how Craig's statements would play in our human resources department," a Fox spokesman said at the time. "He couldn't say those things here."

Fox officials now say that James's religious beliefs and antigay comments had nothing to do with his dismissal. "The decision not to use him in our college football coverage was based on the perception that he abused a previous on-air position to further a personal agenda," Fox spokesman Scott Groggin told the Morning News. While appearing on ESPN, James had claimed his son was being mistreated by Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach; Leach was subsequently fired.

Fox's firing of James "had nothing to do with Mr. James' religious beliefs, and we did not discriminate against Mr. James in any way," Groggin continued. "The allegations are baseless, and we will vigorously defend ourselves against them."

In 2014, James filed a complaint with the Texas Workforce Commission Civil Rights Division alleging religious discrimination and retaliation by Fox. The commission investigated the matter, and both Fox and James participated in mediation, according to the suit. The suit doesn't say what the outcome was, but notes, "James has exhausted all administrative perquisites to bringing this action." The commission notified him on June 5 of this year that he had the right to file a civil suit within 60 days. He is represented by the Liberty Institute, a conservative legal group based in Plano, a suburb of Dallas.

James, now working for the antigay Family Research Council as an assistant to its president, Tony Perkins, has continued to make homophobic statements. This year, for instance, on a radio broadcast with Perkins, he said supporters of marriage equality "have a problem with God." Sports franchises that signed on to a pro-equality friend of the court brief in the marriage case that led to this year's Supreme Court ruling, he added, did so because of the devil's influence.