ESPN on Tuesday announced that it would suspend ESPN panelist Stephen A. Smith for one week after he commented last week that women should try not to “provoke” domestic violence.
“Stephen A. Smith will not appear on First Take or ESPN Radio for the next week. He will return to ESPN next Wednesday,” the network said in a statement, according to USA Today.
Smith apologized for his remarks on Twitter on Friday, but he also defended his comments.
“I wasn’t BLAMING women for anything,” he said. “I was simply saying to take all things into consideration for preventative purposes. Period.”
He then apologized on-air on Monday during “First Take.”
“My words came across that it is somehow a woman’s fault. This was not my intent. It is not what I was trying to say. Yet the failure to clearly articulate something different lies squarely on my shoulders,” he said.
Ryan said you would be back tommorrow(7-30-2014) on the radio,I
guess we will see.
It’s nice to see ESPN react so swiftly to inane and inflammatory gibberish from a talking head. I wish there was equally swift retribution when a GOTP demagogue promotes idiocy like this guy.
That’s nobody’s idea of an apology, that’s just two dollar wordplay.
He’ll probably use this free time to beat his wife for sassing back.
Does this guy know what the word “diatribe” actually means? Somehow, I doubt it.