Stephen A. Smith backpedaled better than Michael Jackson after Twitter exploded on the ESPN “First Take” cohost on Friday afternoon his ill-advised rant about how women should stop provoking men into beating them down.
Wrong move. Seriously.
The controversy exploded with volcanic ferocity when “First Take” panelists broached the topic of Ray Rice’s seemingly light two-game suspension by the NFL for knocking his wife (then his fiancé) unconscious in an elevator. Smith insinuated that Rice’s wife provoked him and advised women to stop inciting their men into physical violence against them.
The man with the mouth that doesn’t have an “off” switch has often gotten himself twisted up like a pretzel. Back when Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson was arrested for head-butting Evelyn Lozada Smith opined that, based on Lozada’s reality-TV personality, Lozada had provoked Johnson to go upside her head.
After digesting Smith’s misogynistic line of thinking, female journalists and others spit out fire at the oft over talkative and high decibel Smith .
In fact, brushback got so intense, so hot, that the man known as “Stephen A.” was inspired to offer a wholesale mea culpa instead of the half-hearted apology/sermon he gave when he first got onto Twitter.
Turn the e-page to read how Smith tried — at first — to defend the indefensible, only to Moonwalk into the corner and wave the white flag to finally admit that was wrong all along. Also check out enraged women fire off shots at Smith for his arrogant and wrong-headed statement that women provoke men into beating them down.
Women did not appreciate Smith’s so called apologies and tore into the “sports journalist” with impunity. Take a look:
After provoking these kind of responses from women, Smith was provoked to offer a complete apology without conditions:
My series of tweets a short time ago is not an adequate way to capture my thoughts so I am using a single tweet via Twitlonger to more appropriately and effectively clarify my remarks from earlier today about the Ray Rice situation. I completely recognize the sensitivity of the issues and the confusion and disgust that my comments caused. First off, as I said earlier and I want to reiterate strongly, it is never OK to put your hands on a women. Ever. I understand why that important point was lost in my other comments, which did not come out as I intended. I want to state very clearly. I do NOT believe a woman provokes the horrible domestic abuses that are sadly such a major problem in our society. I wasn’t trying to say that or even imply it when I was discussing my own personal upbringing and the important role the women in my family have played in my life. I understand why my comments could be taken another way. I should have done a better job articulating my thoughts and I sincerely apologize. –
Is this a case of too little too late, of being such an unrestrained hothead on television or so long that he felt immune from sanctions on ESPN?
People have lost their dream jobs of on-air reporting for less than what Smith said. We’ll have to see if this was enough to warrant a suspension or termination.
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