Stephen A. Smith is a very well-known Dallas Cowboys hater and wants to them to lose every single week. However, he is very good friends with Jerry Jones, which is why it shouldn’t be a shock on what he said about him over an old photo.
A resurfaced photograph from 1957 pictures Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones standing with a crowd of White students blocking six Black students from entering North Little Rock High School in Arkansas. The Cowboys owner has been blasted online because of that photo.
The photo, shot by the Associated Press in 1957, shows a group of Black students trying to integrate classes at North Little Rock High School when Jones was a 15-year-old sophomore. The young Black men are blocked from entering the school by a much larger group of white teens.
Stephen A. Smith is not a fan of the backlash.
The ESPN personality started off with how pissed he was and pointed out how long ago that photo was taken.
“I’m pretty pissed off, Smith said as he began his argument. “And let me say this, I’m pissed off, but not for reasons that people would think.”
“I’m very, very fond of Jerry Jones, and I’m not hiding that from anybody. Is his record perfect? No. But I’m pissed off because he doesn’t deserve what just happened. One report, our report said he was 14 years old. Yeah, another report said he was 15 years old. At minimum, that’s 65 years ago.”
Smith continued:
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“What was happening is not something that anybody as a black person should be appreciative about. We had six students at that particular North Little Rock High School that was trying to desegregate the school. No one should be OK with it. Nobody should be OK with that. Regardless, we understand that. We get all of that. We also understand what we as black people and as black folks, black men have to deal with. And by the way, to some degree, we still deal with a lot of things and we all know it. Racism is alive and well.
Bigotry and prejudice is alive and well. We get all of that. What I’m saying is, here’s the part that bothers me. You wanna get on Jerry Jones and his track record? Fine. In 2003 or so, you know what? You should have hired you, Dennis Green. Shit. And they got an interview on the phone. It should have been an in person interview, right? You should have followed the letter of the rule of the law as it pertained to the Rudy rule. He wanted. Bill Parcells universally recognized one of the greatest football coaches we’ve ever seen. It was clear you wanted Bill Parcells. Nobody else was gonna have a chance of getting that.
Stop. That’s what he wants to do. You want him aligning for that? Fine. You wanna point out that he’s one of seven black NFL owners that’s never higher than African American as a head coach? Fine. Do all of that. Attack him for that, go ahead. No problem. I see a plethora of African Americans employed by him. I see black players who played for him, who rave about this man and what he’s done for them on a personal level. But if you wanna go by his hiring record when it comes to head coaches, no problem. Can’t go to executive right, cause we know it’s him, you know?
You want to be the President GMO, he wanna do everything and then he’s got his children and he leads on his well, so can’t go to executive rock. But you wanna get on him about the head coaches, fine.
But you gonna bring up a photo of him? Yeah. When he was 1415 years old, 65 or 66 years ago, we. This is this is where cancer culture gets into the mix. And you’re making an attempt to eradicate him, what he stands for. And all he has done. I will remind you, we’ve had Senator Robert Byrd, who passed away a few years ago, that was a member of the KKK. We’ve had other politicians, you know, whose record?”
The Cowboys owner, now 80 years old, spoke about the issue after Thursday’s Cowboys game.
“I didn’t know at the time the monumental event, really, that was going on and I’m sure glad that we’re a long way from that. I am,” Jones said. “And that would remind me just to continue doing everything we can to not have those kinds of things happen.”
Jones said he showed up to see what was going on, not to actually participate in the actions of what the others were doing.
“Nobody there had any idea, frankly, what was going to take place. You didn’t have all the last 70 years of reference and all the things that were going (on),” he said.
