Indy's Jason Whitlock removed as head of ESPN website

Indy native Jason Whitlock has been let go from the ESPN website he spearheaded, a site set to launch this summer focused on the relationship between race and sports.

"The Undefeated" was the brainchild of Whitlock — and the first ESPN site built around the expertise of an African American journalist. He was to be editor-in-chief and headliner for the site.

Whitlock said Saturday morning he's not ready to talk about his removal as head of "The Undefeated."

"Thanks for reaching out," Whitlock said via text. "I'm gonna pass on talking right now."

ESPN issued a statement on the move Friday.

"As we continue to move forward in the process of creating 'The Undefeated,' we have collectively decided to make some structural adjustments that will maximize the skill sets and strengths of our team, leading to the best possible output for the site and for all of ESPN," ESPN said in a press release. "To that end, Jason Whitlock will now be entirely focused on what he does best: creating distinctive and compelling content, which will live across various ESPN platforms."

Whitlock, who will continue as an ESPN sportswriter, will be replaced by Leon Carter. ESPN said Carter is "an experienced leader in journalism who officially joined the site in January after leading staffs at the New York Daily News and ESPNNewYork.com. Carter will assume all day-to-day management of the site's editorial processes and personnel on an interim basis."

Whitlock did not immediately respond to requests for an interview.

In April, Whitlock was inducted into the Indiana Sports Writers and Sportscasters Association's Hall of Fame. Just weeks later, he was the subject of a Deadspin piece that questioned his management style.

It alleged that Whitlock, in a "The Undefeated" meeting told employees: "If you're more comfortable working for white people, rather than working for me — and that sounds humorous, but it's the truth. Some black people are far more comfortable answering to a white person than a black person no matter how black they like to pass themselves off to be. Far more comfortable, because they know a white person is going to overlook their shortcomings. 'Eh, it's good for a Negro.' I'm not about that. But if you're more comfortable working for a white person, I will find a white person for you to work for."

In a sit-down interview with The Indianapolis Star before those allegations, Whitlock talked about his excitement in launching "The Undefeated."

"It will be an extension of what I've been doing for a long time," said Whitlock, who played football at Warren Central and then at Ball State University, where he majored in journalism. "We're going to tackle some of the toughest issues about race and culture and sports and hopefully we'll address them fairly and in an original way."

• The following story was originally published April 14.

Jason Whitlock has no use for mincing words. For sugar coating. For pacifying.

And that has served him well.

As he sat at the kitchen table in his mom's Indianapolis home — one day after being inducted into the Indiana Sports Writers and Sportscasters Association's Hall of Fame of Fame — the ESPN sportswriter talked Ray Rice, Andrew Harrison and Chris Copeland.

He talked race, culture, the n-word — and their infusion in the sports world.

And he talked about his childhood, thinking back to the days as a boy growing up in Indianapolis.

"We lived in the hood," he said.

Whitlock was raised in a tiny apartment in a neighborhood off of 38^th Street on Temple Avenue that he described as rundown and seedy. He lived there with his brother and single mom, a factory worker at Western Electric.

Yet, this strong-willed fireball of a kid was far from deterred by his circumstances. He didn't run the streets. He didn't get into trouble.

Instead, Whitlock read the newspaper every day. He delved into the stacks of Sports Illustrated magazines piled around his bed, hand-me-downs from a friend. He called into local sports talk radio shows to give critiques of his beloved Pacers. Colts announcer Bob Lamey knew him by name.

Whitlock was going somewhere in life. Big.

But first he would have to get somewhere else — out of the hood.

It happened when he was in third grade. A burglar broke into the family's apartment. It scared his mom enough that she took on a second job as a cashier at a supermarket.

She was going to move her boys to the suburbs or at least what was considered the suburbs in the 1970s. The family moved to 21^st Street and Post Road into Nottingham Village apartments.

"For a kid from the hood? It had two outdoor pools, an indoor pool, a clubhouse, a lake," said Whitlock, 47. "We thought we had moved to … well we were the Beverly Hillbillies or the Jeffersons is better. We had moved on up."

Moving on up could be the theme of Whitlock's life. He's the first to admit that.

"My dad didn't graduate high school. My mom is a high school graduate. My mom is a factory worker. My dad owned a bar in the inner city," he said. "Kids from that background are far less likely in this day and age to go as far as I've gone."

How far Whitlock has gone? He is a national sports writer living in Los Angeles with 220,000 followers on Twitter.

He is ready to launch an ESPN website called "The Undefeated" this summer. The site will focus on sports, race and urban culture, and how the three intersect.

The site will be the first ESPN website built around the expertise of an African American journalist — Whitlock. He will be the editor-in-chief and headliner for the site.

"It will be an extension of what I've been doing for a long time," said Whitlock, who played football at Warren Central and then at Ball State University, where he majored in journalism. "We're going to tackle some of the toughest issues about race and culture and sports and hopefully we'll address them fairly and in an original way."

None of it surprises his mom, Joyce.

"I'm very proud," she says as she shows off photographs of Whitlock as a boy. The one of him in a bow tie in first grade, her favorite. The one of him in his Easter suit with his hat turned sideways, hands on his hips — Whitlock's favorite.

What exactly was Whitlock like growing up?

"The truth or fantasy?" Joyce asks. "Very strong willed. Very strong willed. Very strong willed.

"His opinion never mattered when he was young. His oldest brother always seemed to have the last word. And now he throws it up in our face — now my opinion's in the paper, on ESPN."

It sure is. Whitlock is not one to hold back from telling it like he sees it, regardless of the backlash he might get.

He wasn't shy about it when he covered the Fab Five at Michigan for the Ann Arbor News as a budding 25-year-old journalist.

"Steve Fisher did not like me at all. I was hyper-critical of him," Whitlock said. "I didn't think he was much of a coach. He just kind of rolled the ball out there and I was pretty outspoken about that. Steve Fisher and I didn't get along at all."

He wasn't shy about it when he wrote one of his most unforgettable columns in 2007 for the Kansas City Star, where he worked from 1994 to 2010.

After longtime radio host Don Imus was fired by CBS for calling members of the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" on the air, Whitlock wrote: "Imus isn't the real bad guy. Thank you, Don Imus. You've given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem. … Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we can once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it's 1965 and delude ourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessary than eradicating our self-hatred."

Whitlock said it's one of the columns he's most proud of.

"I questioned the focus of the conversation and the heat of the conversation being on Don Imus," he said. "When I felt like we as African Americans should be questioning the language that we use amongst ourselves and how we address and feel about each other."

And he wasn't shy when asked about some of the latest sports controversies as he sat at his mom's kitchen table.

Take Kentucky guard Andrew Harrison, who directed an obscenity and a racial slur at Wisconsin's Frank Kaminsky during a postgame news conference at the Final Four after Kentucky lost 71-64 to the Badgers in the semifinals. The loss ruined the Wildcats' undefeated season; they finished 38-1.

"Andrew Harrison is a poor loser, got off easy in terms of backlash to his comments, handled his apology really well and embarrassed his team and teammates," Whitlock said. "They'd had an incredible season and really had a good reputation and he took a dump on that. So he owes his strongest apology, in my opinion, to his teammates. Just a bad loser. That's all that was."

As for Pacers player Chris Copeland's 4 a.m. stabbing earlier this month and the critics who questioned the player for being out at that hour:

"When I was 30, I was out until 4 a.m. and I didn't have as much money as he's got at 30," Whitlock said. "I don't know if you can blame Chris Copeland. He's a young person like most young people trying to have a good time. The truth is complicated and I can't see where Chris Copeland did anything wrong."

And then there is the Ray Rice domestic abuse incident. Whitlock says Rice hasn't taken responsibility for the crime that only he is to blame for:

"Ray Rice touches on so many issues in terms of stuff that hasn't really been fully explored," he said. "Great wealth creates an arrogance and, to be quite frank, a god complex in some people that they start feeling like they can do no wrong, they own people, they're superior to other people. When I look at that video, I see someone that thinks he is superior to his wife and that she is no more than a pet that has to obey its master."

Strong opinions. Yes. No mincing words. No sugar coating.

Which all have led to Whitlock's induction into the hall of fame. Whitlock, of course has an opinion on that.

Too early.

"At first I was very honored and then my second thought was, 'Man, I think this is premature. I still feel like I've got 20 more years of good work in me,' " he said. "The hall of fame is something you do when you look back at the end of your career, not in the middle of it."

Of course he's not really too upset.

"It was great," he said. "I was honored and humbled and thankful, I guess."

Follow Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow.