NFL Team Suspends Radio Announcer for Stating a Fact About Black Quarterback
The San Francisco 49ers have suspended their radio broadcaster, former NFL defensive lineman Tim Ryan, for stating a fact about Baltimore Raven’s Quarterback Lamar Jackson. Ryan said that when Jackson, who is black goes to fake a handoff with the ball, it is more difficult to see the ball and that is one of the reasons he is very good at fake handoffs.
The San Francisco 49ers suspended radio analyst Tim Ryan Wednesday after he said that Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson's dark skin helps him disguise a dark football when running fake handoffs.https://t.co/VY9qSfk7hf
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 5, 2019
Speaking on the Murph and Mac sports talk radio show after the 49ers loss to the Ravens on Sunday, Ryan complimented Jackson saying, “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. 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.”
Apparently, this simple visual analysis of a quarterback’s faking ability was extremely offensive to the 49ers organization and others. The team issued a statement stating that Ryan was suspended for a game and they were disappointed” on his statements. They also said, “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. We know Tim as a man of high integrity and are confident he will grow and learn from this experience.” It is worth noting that this is coming from the team that employed Colin Kaepernick.
The @49ers have apologized to the @Ravens and Tim Ryan issued a statement expressing regret for his word choice & apologizing to Lamar Jackson.
— Jason Barrett (@sportsradiopd) December 5, 2019
BSM's @BrandonContes shares the details https://t.co/MbozW3PEhu pic.twitter.com/9A5pENkAfG
Ryan issued a seemingly forced and tepid apology saying “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.”
Snippet of Tim Ryan’s comments RE: Lamar Jackson’s “dark skin with a dark football with a dark uniform... you could not see that thing” via KNBR. He has since been suspended by the team pic.twitter.com/vpRI3veoXK
— 49ersHive (@49ersHive) December 5, 2019