San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman said
suspended radio host Tim Ryan apologized to individual players for his comment about
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson having an advantage because of “his dark skin,” but Sherman also said he thought Ryan made a “valid” point.
“I know Tim personally and listened to the dialogue and saw it written and honestly, I wasn’t as outraged as anybody else,” Sherman said Thursday. “I understand how it could be taken under a certain context and be offensive to some.
“But if you’re saying, ‘Hey, this is a brown ball, they’re wearing dark colors and he has a brown arm,’ honestly, we were having trouble seeing the ball on the field. He’s making a play-fake and sometimes he swings his arm really fast, and you’re like ‘OK, does he have the ball on this play’ and then you look up and Ingram is running it. Technically, it was a valid point. But you can always phrase things better and not say ‘his black skin’ but I’ve had a relationship since I got here and he’s never been anything but a great guy and a professional and a guy who takes his job seriously.”
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The 49ers lost Sunday to the Ravens, 20-17, during a rain-soaked day that drenched everything from the field to Baltimore’s black uniforms, to the footballs used during play. Baltimore employed a heavy dose of read-option plays in which the quarterback initiates a potential handoff and reads defenders before deciding whether to keep possession and run, or hand it off. The moment when both the quarterback and running back are touching the ball is called the mesh point.
Jackson ran the ball 16 times for 101 yards with one touchdown.
“He was really good at that fake, Lamar Jackson, but when you consider his dark skin color with a dark football with a dark uniform, you could not see that thing,” Ryan said on-air Monday on KNBR during a segment analyzing the game. “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.”
Sherman, on Thursday, didn’t disagree.
“It was 100% an issue,” Sherman continued. “It’s the way (Ryan) presented it. That’s why it wasn’t offensive because what he was saying was a great point. It has been that way since any zone-read scheme. The mesh point is a tough point of contention. So you add a dark jersey to it and it’s going to make it even harder. But obviously you can always phrase it better.”
The team announced it was suspending Ryan one game, and indicated he will not call Sunday’s contest against the
New Orleans Saints.
“It’s unfortunate that that’s what it came to, but the team did what it felt it had to do,” Sherman said. “It’s a play where he’s talking football, but he could’ve used better verbiage. I don’t think anybody in this locker room is taking it offensively or anything. He has apologized and we know his character, so hopefully this can blow over and we can move past it.”
Ryan issued an apology and expressed "regret" for his choice of words.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor..._1PEpsU9_Pm6oRg-UcFwlPy4UabWXfQyBqtAL34tbaI1k
