Sports commentator Stephen A. Smith lamented “white privilege” as the reason the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars signed former Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow to a contract.
“If I’m gonna bring up white privilege when I brought up Steve Nash getting the job in Brooklyn, is this not an example of white privilege?” Smith wondered aloud on ESPN’s First Take. “What brother do you know that’s getting this opportunity?”
Tebow, a former NFL quarterback who had been out of football for six years, was signed by Jacksonville to play tight end on Thursday. Jacksonville’s head coach, Urban Meyer, previously coached Tebow to two national championships at the University of Florida.
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“He was in the best shape of his life, asked to see if he could workout with a couple of our coaches,” Meyer said about the team’s decision to give Tebow a tryout earlier this month. “I wasn’t even there. They came back to me and said, ‘Wow, this guy’s in incredible shape.’ Then, I went another time and watched them try him out. And they said go work on these things. He comes back later, they try him out again — I’m not there ― they come in, and they said, ‘Wow, this guy’s ball skills, he’s a great athlete, he looks like he’s 18 years old, not … 33.’ I said, ‘Guys, you don’t understand, now this guy is the most competitive maniac you’re ever gonna talk to, and let’s give it a shot.’”
Smith, who did compliment Tebow at times during the segment Thursday, made it clear he was not convinced race wasn’t a factor in the signing.
“Now that makes people uncomfortable because we’re talking about race,” Smith added. “Let me be the first to say, I don’t give a damn how you feel. I mean what I say. It is white privilege.”
“There’s no way to eradicate white privilege without white individuals giving up some of their privilege,” Smith continued.
Smith went on to link his position to the death of George Floyd last year and suggested that black people are frustrated seeing Tebow receive an opportunity they believe they are unable to attain.
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“Because black people have repeatedly felt like we have the proverbial knee on our neck,” Smith said, referencing Floyd’s death at the hands of now-convicted murderer Derek Chauvin. “We constantly have to scratch and claw our way. When we see someone of a different ilk, of a different ethnicity, getting opportunities we know we would never get, that’s where the words ‘white privilege’ comes from.”
Last year, Smith blamed “white privilege” when the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets signed Hall of Fame basketball player Steve Nash, a white man, as head coach despite his lack of any coaching experience.
