When Stephen A. Smith apologized over the air on Monday morning, everyone believed that ESPN wouldn’t move to discipline the sports anchor. Well, apparently they’ve changed their minds. Hit the jump for details…
Shortly after Smith’s apology for making insensitive comments about the Ray Rice domestic violence situation ESPN released a statement saying:
Via CNN:
“Stephen’s comments last Friday do not reflect our company’s point of view,” the network said in a statement. “As his apology demonstrates, he recognizes his mistakes and has a deeper appreciation of our company values.”
We believed that it was over at that point, but after a severe backlash from his colleagues and the public, ESPN apparently changed their minds and officially suspended Smith. According to TMZ:
The network says Smith will not appear on his show “First Take” or on ESPN Radio until next Wednesday.
We wonder what Smith’s next steps are going to be…it’s already been reported that he was thinking about taking on another position at a satellite radio station.
