The San Francisco 49ers have suspended Tim Ryan over horrible comments he made about Lamar Jackson. The radio color-analyst stated the Baltimore Ravens quarterback is exceptional at faking handoffs because of his “dark skin with a dark football.”
The comments came about during Ryan’s weekly segment with KNBR’s “Murph and Mac” morning radio show when he was asked about Jackson’s stellar performance in Sunday’s victory over the 49ers.
“He’s really good at that fake, Lamar Jackson, but when you consider his dark skin with a dark football with a dark uniform, you could not see that thing,” Ryan said on air. “I mean you literally could not see when he was in and out of the mesh point and if you’re a half step slow on him in terms of your vision forget about it, he’s out of the gate.”
San Francisco 49ers officials said in a statement to The Chronicle on Wednesday that they are “disappointed” in Ryan’s comments and are suspending him for the upcoming game.
“We hold Tim to a high standard as a representative of our organization and he must be more thoughtful with his words. Tim has expressed remorse in a public statement and has also done so with us privately,” 49ers officials said. “We know Tim as a man of high integrity and are confident he will grow and learn from this experience.”
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In a statement to The Chronicle, Ryan said, “I regret my choice of words in trying to describe the conditions of the game. Lamar Jackson is an MVP-caliber player and I respect him greatly. I want to sincerely apologize to him and anyone else I offended.”
The 49ers said they have reached out to Baltimore Ravens officials to “extend our apologies and assure them the matter is not being taken lightly.”
Jackson only threw for 105 yards, but had 101 rushing yards and a rushing TD en route to a 20-17 win.
