Ask your next question to the hand walking backward, pal

UPDATED: Wednesday, noon:

Rob Parker, the Detroit News columnist (Wikipedia bio here) who drew attention for himself by asking then-employed Detroit Lions coach Rod Marinelli if he regretted his daughter not marrying a better defensive coordinator, is without employment himself now.

Hardy har har.

Several Internet sites, starting with The Associated Press (linked here) and including the Maynard Institute Journalism site (linked here) have reported Parker's resignation as of Friday, also revealing further indiscretions from his past that may have also caught up with him. He had been at the paper for eight years and was reassigned as a general assigment reporter after the backlash of his Marinelli incident on Dec. 21. The column that Parker wrote as an apology/explanation was the last he did for the paper.

On an appearance Wednesday on "Mike & Mike In The Morning" for ESPN Radio/ESPN2, Parker said he asked for a buyout "and they granted me one, and it was a lot deeper than that. I know the timing and ... the situation and circumstance just makes it look like it all had to do (with the Marinelli issue). But the newspaper is changing. It's about to make some major changes in March ... and I just thought it was time for me to leave because we're not on the same page as far as reporting and trying to get at a story and how you go about it. ... (when) asking the question becomes such a story, I just think maybe it's time for me to be in another situation."