Stephen A. Smith mentioned his ESPN colleague Ryan Clark “crossed the line” by involving Robert Griffin III’s spouse of their public feud, nevertheless, he didn’t suppose it was “a fireable offense.”
What began as Clark and Griffin, a Fox Sports activities analyst, sharing their takes in regards to the confrontation between WNBA stars Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark throughout the Fever-Sky sport on Saturday, rapidly snowballed right into a fiery back-and-forth that spilled into their private lives.
Throughout Wednesday’s installment of his self-titled YouTube present, Smith defined that he didn’t condone that Clark introduced up “both of Griffin’s marriages.”
“I don’t want to hear s–t about Ryan Clark getting fired,” Smith mentioned. “I don’t need to hear that. Ryan Clark is my colleague, he’s my pal and brother. He is an effective man and he’s brother. And there’s no means on earth that I’d be quiet if he was fired over one thing like this.
“I’m not saying he’s right, and I’ll get into that in a second. But this is not a fireable offense… I don’t usually talk about ESPN business. And I’m not going to right now. Other than to say, RGIII clearly is not liked by Ryan Clark. What Ryan Clark said — that’s not something he normally does. ‘Corny, phony,’ those are the kinds of things he said specifically about RGIII. That’s what he feels.”
Some referred to as for ESPN to fireside Clark over his remarks about race and Griffin’s spouse Grete, who’s white.
Griffin and Clark, each of whom are black, have been NFL teammates with Washington in 2014. Griffin’s ex-wife Rebeca Liddicoat is white.
“I love my man RC,” Smith continued. “I assumed he crossed the road when he introduced up you, RGIII, being married, not as soon as, however twice to white ladies. There was no must go there. However he don’t like your ass. That may have had one thing to do with it.
“I’m not condoning him doing that. I’m not condoning him bringing that up. If RC and I had spoke about it in-depth, I would have told him, ‘Don’t go there. There’s no need for all of that.’”
Smith was referring to Clark mentioning Griffin’s two marriages “to white women.”
Griffin and Liddicoat divorced in 2016 after being married for 3 years. The previous NFL quarterback and Grete tied the knot in 2018 and have 4 daughters collectively.
Smith defined that he disagreed with Griffin’s accusation that Clark launched an assault on his household.
“But I want to emphasize something very important. RGIII, he never attacked your wife. He never attacked your family. He was attacking you, and you know it,” Smith mentioned.
“Now, that don’t make it right, the mentioning of your spouse. I’ll concede that. He didn’t utter a unfavourable syllable about your spouse. He by no means talked about your youngsters. So if you say (he was) attacking your spouse and attacking your loved ones, your youngsters. How did he try this? Ryan Clark didn’t try this.
“He talked about you and your behavior. He talked about how you lean towards highlighting her ethnicity. I don’t know whether that’s true or not. I pay no attention to that stuff. But I know what he said. And he was saying she was much more than the color of her skin. He did in no way denigrate your wife and he never mentioned your children.”
Griffin and Clark stood by their remarks and issues seemingly fizzled out within the public eye, however not till after many scrutinized the pair for making issues private as a substitute of discussing the Fever-Sky sport.
