Stephen A. Smith didn’t exactly handle the infamous Ray Rice situation with grace, implying women shouldn’t provoke men.
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Stephen A. Smith has been a premier voice of North American sports for well over a decade. Everything from radio segments to debate shows, the native New Yorker has risen up the ranks of the sports analytical world and currently sits atop it. His most well known venture is his show with ESPN called ‘First Take’.
‘First Take’ has seen a ton of hosts come and go such as Skip Bayless and Max Kellerman. Stephen A. Smith has remained the one constant and despite the rise of ‘new media’ these past few years, has generated a decent amount of pull.
Of course, when you’ve been on air for close to 11 years, you’re bound to utter a few things that don’t gel well with the general public. This was the case with SAS when he decided to address the Ray Rice situation.
Rice, in 2014, had video footage of himself assaulting his wife, prompting a nation-wide debate over the issue of domestic violence. Smith, being a sports analyst, decided to give his 2 cents on the topic.
Stephen A. Smith on the Ray Rice scandal.
Stephen A’s job is to generate clicks and views at the end of the day. While analysts are required to employ their expertise to avoid massive amounts of backlash, sometimes, trying to get the top headline gets in the way of saying what truly should be said.
Stephen A. Smith, in the wake of what took place between Ray Rice and his wife, blatantly claimed that women should never do anything to provoke a man in such a manner that he would want to physically harm them.
It should be noted that he did reiterate that a man should never hit a woman, the damage had been done. ESPN issued a week-long suspension for Smith. Upon returning, the analyst put out an apology video where he accepted that he was wrong to indicate women are at any fault when it comes to the issue of domestic violence.
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