Jackson Free Press

Last week, a few figures in the sports world made headlines for the things they said, which weren't good statements for the most part. But it wasn't just players. A guy who covers sports made one of the biggest blunders of the week.

ESPN sacked Colin Cowherd—if you can call it sacking when he was already leaving at the end of this week—after the radio star insulted a whole country.

While talking about the complexities of baseball, the radio host said, "I've never bought into that: 'Baseball's just too complex.' Really? A third of the sport is from the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic has not been known in my lifetime as having world-class academic abilities."

He followed that statement up with saying that players from that country don't have as many educational opportunities as players from other nations. Dominican players make up about 10 percent of the athletes in Major League Baseball and who knows how much in the minor league.

In this day and age, you would think that a radio host would know better than to insult an entire country. What Cowherd said was not only dumb but also generalized everyone from the Dominican Republic. However, Cowherd is now Fox Sports' problem after he left ESPN.

Current Los Angeles Clippers player Josh Smith also made headlines when he said that life was going to get harder for him this year. He just signed a contract that will pay him the NBA veteran minimum, and he will get a payout from the Detroit Pistons for a total of $6.9 million in salary this season.

Yes, Smith is taking a pay cut and will probably have to cut back, but it does seem out of touch when most Americans make do with far less. Add the fact that Smith has made nearly $94 million during his career, according to Basketball-Reference.com, and you won't get many people to feel sorry for him.

Smith was answering a question honestly, and his answer, I'm sure, is true. Everyone has to cut back when they make less money. But it doesn't sound right to the average person.

Finally, the WWE fired Hulk Hogan after a transcript of him making racist remarks surfaced last week. The remarks came from a sex tape, which he made with the wife of radio personality Bubba "The Love Sponge" Clem (you can't make this stuff up) in 2012, and they became public due to a lawsuit with the website Gawker.

The remarks are horrible and the worst part, but a Hulk Hogan sex tape is a close second. Try getting that image out of your head for the rest of the day.