Craig James files complaint saying he was fired for religious discrimination

Craig James may have been sacked by FOX Sports Southwest, but he is not going down without a fight.

According to The Associated Press, Liberty Institute in Texas, a group that promotes religious rights, filed a complaint with the Texas Workforce Commission Tuesday on behalf of James. The Liberty Institute believes James was fired by FOX Sports Southwest because of his anti-gay marriage beliefs.

James was hired by FOX Sports Southwest last September to serve as a college football analyst for the regional channel, but the larger FOX Sports network put an end to that after learning about the move.

“The decision to no longer use Craig James in our college football coverage was simply because he was not a good fit,” a Fox Sports Networks spokesperson told The Dallas Morning News in September. “Regrettably the decision to use him was not properly vetted, and as a result he will no longer provide commentary on Fox Sports Southwest college football coverage.”

A statement from FOX also supposedly called James “a polarizing figure in the college sports community” and said he was let go “based on the perception that he abused a previous on-air position to further a personal agenda.”

But here’s the quote from a Sept. 6 Dallas Morning News article that James and the Liberty Institute are focusing on.

“We just asked ourselves how Craig’s statements would play in our human resources department,” said a Fox spokesman. “He couldn’t say those things here.”

Based on that comment, James and his group believe religious discrimination was at play.

Too bad there’s no legal reason that says you can fire someone on grounds of them being a d-bag, because that’s probably the best explanation for the situation.