Stephen A. Smith made it very clear earlier this week that he is sticking beside Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones after a photo of him trying to stop Black students from entering North Little Rock High School surfaced online.
The photo was taken in 1957 when Jones was either 14 or 15 and it shows six Black students trying to enter the high school while surrounded by white boys and men attempting to stop them from doing so. This was a notable event in history and marked a turn in school desegregation.
Outrage followed the photo, with many from the sports world calling out Jones. However, the ESPN First Take host defended Jones in the scandal. He started off his rant by stating the way people are reacting to the photo has him “pretty pissed off.”
“I’m pissed off because he doesn’t deserve what just happened. He doesn’t deserve it. One report, our report, said he was 14 years old. Another report said he was 15 years old. At minimum, that’s 65 years ago,”
“I don’t have a problem with a photo. If he was 30, 35, 40 years old, that’s different,” the 55-year-old added.
Former NFL running back Le’Veon Bell has a problem with his comments and he summed it up in one disrespectful tweet.
“I’ve grown to realize Stephen A Smith is basically Uncle Ruckus …”
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For those that are unaware, Uncle Ruckus is a character on the animated TV series The Boondocks. On the show, he is racist toward his own people, and repeatedly proclaims his love for the white race and disdain of the black race.
Terrell Owens, who has had words with Smith in the past, seems to agree as he went ahead and tagged him.
Owens and Smith had words back in 2019 when he told Smith: “Max [Kellerman] almost seems blacker than you, Stephen A.”
Since the photo was unearthed, Jones has attempted to clarify, saying he went there as a “curious thing,” with no intention of harassing the Black students.
“I don’t know that I or anybody anticipated or had a background of knowing what was involved,” Jones said to The Washington Post. “It was more a curious thing.”
Meanwhile, the Cowboys have still never once had a Black head coach in its nearly 63-year existence.
