Stephen A. Smith once went at Jehovah’s witnesses by claiming they are unvaccinated, something he would go on to regret.
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Stephen A. Smith has made a name for himself in the North American sports analysis world by being as controversial as he can with each of his takes. Over the years, the ESPN analyst has racked up more apologies than he can probably remember.
Everything from insinuating women are equally at fault for domestic violence against them during the Ray Rice situation to making racist comments against Shohei Ohtani, SAS has said quite a few regrettable things.
One of his most recent comments made on topic he never fully understood in the first place was against Jehovah’s witnesses. His comments would come while talking about Andrew Wiggins’s unvaccinated status, claiming his adherence to the religion was restricted him from getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
Stephen A. Smith would be forced to apologize for his comments on Jehovah’s witnesses and their vaccination policies.
While Jehovah’s witnesses do have certain rules and regulations they need to follow, being unvaccinated against COVID-19 most definitely isn’t one of them. So, when Stephen A. Smith called out Andrew Wiggins for this being the reason for why he is unvaxxed, he was quickly asked to issue an apology for insinuating the same.
“I could’ve and should’ve been clear in that discussion because I fully understand that Jehovah’s witnesses have no specific opposition to the vaccine. I did not make that clear. So I wanna make sure that I make that now and my apologies for the mishap,” said Smith.
The official website for Jehovah’s witnesses even states clearly that they have nothing against vaccination.
Stephen A. Smith cracked down on unvaccinated players last year.
Stephen A. Smith said last year that athletes saying their vaccination status was a private matter was shameful due to them being unvaxxed having a direct effect on the person next to them.
The player who Smith went at the hardest in this situation was Kyrie Irving. The Nets guard stirred up quite the debate once he decided to remain unvaccinated, resulting in him missing games and losing millions of dollars.
SAS wouldn’t have as he took to First Take on multiple occasions to lambast him for making such a decision. “To hell with Kyrie Irving,” said Stephen A in one instance and this was just the tip of the iceberg. Clearly, the ESPN analyst feels strongly about folks remaining unvaccinated.
