A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Bonneville International Corp. lawfully fired longtime Sacramento Kings announcer Grant Napear over a 2020 “All Lives Matter” tweet, upholding a lower court’s dismissal of his wrongful-termination lawsuit.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco sided with the broadcaster’s former employer. The decision ends, for now, a fight that began after Napear lost both his jobs in a single 48-hour stretch during the protests that followed George Floyd’s death.
Former Kings star DeMarcus Cousins put the question to Napear on Twitter, now known as X. “What’s your take on BLM?” Napear, off work in May 2020 and watching the protest coverage, replied that he was glad to hear from Cousins. Then he wrote, “ALL LIVES MATTER … EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!”
Bonneville employed Napear as a KTHK radio host and the Kings’ play-by-play announcer. The company suspended him the next day. It fired him the day after that.
Napear was a public figure, the panel noted, and his contract spelled out what that meant online. He had agreed to maintain “a high standard of care and level of responsibility” on social media. The reason, the contract states, was that his conduct could affect Bonneville’s “public image and reputation.” The judges concluded that his tweet “involved his celebrity persona such that his statement fell within the scope of his professional capacity.”
Napear’s attorney, Matthew Ruggles, disputed that conclusion.
“Grant Napear actually owned that Twitter account, had published approximately 38,500 tweets before he tweeted ‘All Lives Matter…Every Single One,’ and that tweet was not made on-air, during work, or as part of any radio show,” Ruggles said. “It was Grant’s personal expression, and that issue should be decided by a jury, not the court.”
Ruggles said he will seek a rehearing before the full appeals court. If that fails, he plans to ask the Supreme Court to review the case.
Napear lost at both levels. U.S. District Judge Dale Drozd, an Obama appointee, threw out the suit without a trial. On appeal, Judges Bridget Bade, Danielle Forrest, and Lawrence VanDyke, all Trump appointees, let that ruling stand.
Napear spent the next five years podcasting. He returned to the airwaves last August as a daily host on Fox Sports Radio in Sacramento, going head-to-head with KHTK.
Napear is not the first sports broadcaster fired over social media. A Dallas radio station cut former major league pitcher Mike Bacsik in 2010 after a disparaging post about “Mexicans in San Antonio.”
Napear’s case drew renewed reaction online after the ruling, with users weighing in on the firing and the court’s decision.