Who Is Jemele Hill? ESPN Suspends Anchor For Social Media Guidelines Violation

"SportsCenter" anchor Jemele Hill was suspended for two weeks for violating ESPN's social media guidelines, according to a statement by the company Monday.

"Jemele Hill has been suspended for two weeks for a second violation of our social media guidelines," the statement said.

"She previously acknowledged letting her colleagues and company down with an impulsive tweet. In the aftermath, all employees were reminded of how individual tweets may reflect negatively on ESPN and that such actions would have consequences. Hence this decision."

Hill, who had previously called President Donald Trump a "white supremacist," in a series of tweets Sunday criticized Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones for warning players for kneeling during the national anthem.

Hill said a "more powerful statement" against Jones would be to boycott watching the team and buying their merchandise, as well as boycotting their advertisers.

The tweet was in response to Jones's comment Sunday, saying any player who "disrespects the flag" by kneeling during the national anthem would not be allowed to play.

Hill added in another tweet that she was not advocating an NFL boycott, but pointing out an "unfair burden" placed upon players of the teams with anthem protest rules.

ESPN said Monday that the anchor was suspended not because of a single tweet but because of series of tweets that "brought the company into a conversation it didn't belong in," CNBC reported.

ESPN however did not state exactly which posts violated the guidelines, as Hill had more than 10 posts Sunday related to Jones’ comments on NFL protests.

A former sportswriter at the Detroit Free Press, Hill, an African-American, co-hosts the 6 p.m. broadcast of "SportsCenter" on ESPN currently. She received backlash last month after referring to Trump as a "white supremacist" in a series of tweets, after the president's reaction to the violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Hill had called the president "a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/ other white supremacists." She wrote that he was "the most ignorant, offensive president of my lifetime." She also called him a bigot, according to NBC New York.

Before becoming the co-host on "SportsCenter," she and her current co-host Michael Smith previously conducted the popular ESPN2 show "His & Hers."

Hill first joined ESPN.com as a Page 2 writer in 2006 and then subsequently transformed to on-camera roles.

Born in Detroit, Hill was raised by a single mother, who separated from her heroin addict husband.

Hill completed her graduation from Michigan State University, where she was also roommates with Kelley L. Carter, a culture writer for ESPN’s The Undefeated. Both have been active members of the National Association of Black Journalists, according to Heavy.com.

Hill serves as an inspiration to the network's young black employees and has garnered the respect of former basketball player Kobe Bryant, who calls her the "sports Oprah," and former President Barack Obama.

Hill's suspension came a month after ESPN distanced itself from her comments on the president. Though no action was taken against her by the network, she came under fire from Trump himself, who demanded an apology.

ESPN president John Skipper had sent a memo to network's staff then, saying "In light of recent events, we need to remind ourselves that we are a journalistic organization and that we should not do anything that undermines that position," Variety.com reported.