The San Francisco 49ers on Thursday
suspended radio colour analyst Tim Ryan
for comments he made about Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson earlier this week.
Speaking on the
, Ryan suggested that Jackson has an advantage over other quarterbacks, especially when faking handoffs to running backs, because his “dark skin colour” helped hide the football.
“He’s really good at that fake, Lamar Jackson, but when you consider his dark skin colour with a dark football with a dark uniform, you could not see that thing,” Ryan said, according to multiple reports. “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.”
The amount of non-black people defending Tim Ryan’s comments about Lamar Jackson is not surprising in the least.
Lamar’s skin color is nowhere near the same as his black jersey or a football.
Outside of sports, Cops like confusing a black person’s hand for a gun, too.
— Wola (@WolaWriter) December 5, 2019
The Twitterverse lit up over the comments, with some saying it was racist and others simply suggesting it was a “dumb” thing to say.
Either way, the 49ers pulled the plug on Ryan, a former defensive tackle who played for the Chicago Bears from 1990-93, for their game against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.
I think we can agree Tim Ryan didn’t mean what he said to be malicious. But what he said was idiotic, has no place in sports analysis, and he deserves the suspension. It’s reads like something you would read from a satirical meme account
— Super Scout Bros (@SuperScoutBros) December 5, 2019
“We are disappointed in Tim Ryan’s comments earlier this week, and have suspended him for the upcoming game,” the 49ers said in a statement. “We have reached out to the Baltimore Ravens organization to extend our apologies and assure them the matter is not being taken lightly.
“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.”
Tim Ryan said something dumb. I can’t say I’m offended or even support his suspension. Just dumb. Zero impact on me or the world, really. Just really dumb.
— Full Dissident (@hbryant42) December 5, 2019
Ryan apologized Thursday for his comments.
“I regret my choice of words in trying to describe the conditions of the game,” he said in a statement released by the 49ers. “Lamar Jackson is an MVP-calibre player and I respect him greatly. I want to sincerely apologize to him and anyone else I offended.”
Jackson, the leading candidate to be named NFL MVP this season, rushed for 101 yards and a touchdown in the Ravens 20-17 win over the 49ers. In 12 games this season, he has rushed for 977 yards and seven touchdowns while passing for 2,523 yards and 25 touchdowns.
These were 49ers radio analyst Tim Ryan’s comments about Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson…
He was stood down for one week.
The comments are appalling. The extremely light punishment is also appalling.
We have a long way to go, sadly. pic.twitter.com/GoGuBCi8l9
— Dan (@DanClarkSports) December 5, 2019
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