After Stephen A. Smith closed Monday’s First Take on ESPN by issuing a threat to Tiki Barber, the former NFL star responded on his New York radio show.
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Tiki Barber Condemns Warning from Stephen A. Smith: ‘Threatening Another Black Man is Not What This Country Should Be About’
By
Brandon ContesFeb 8th, 2022, 12:00 pm
After
Stephen A. Smith closed Monday’s
First Take on ESPN by
issuing a warning to
Tiki Barber, the former NFL star responded on his New York radio show.
“It is not worth my emotional energy to get bent out of shape about something that I have no control over. I have much respect for Stephen A. Smith,” Barber said Tuesday morning on his WFAN midday show co-hosted by
Brandon Tierney.
“If he felt affronted by a conversation that I was having, that wasn’t really about him,” Barber continued. “It was about how we have used an hijacked racism to make excuses for failing diversity initiatives – then I apologize to Stephen A. Smith.”
Barber didn’t get “bent out of shape,” but the former NFL star would go on to condemn what he believed was a threat from Smith.
“He is the prominent Black journalist on a major network, and threatening another Black man is not what this country should be about. Period,” Barber said.
Smith’s gripe with Barber stemmed from the retired running back’s
defense of the New York Giants organization from
allegations of racism.
“I can’t sit here, with conviction, like Stephen A. — who doesn’t know anybody in the Giants’ organization — and claim that they’re a racist organization,” Barber said last week on WFAN.
Smith fired back Monday morning, blasting Barber’s apparent attack on his journalistic credibility. During his response, Smith raised eyebrows by declaring that he knows “a lot of stuff” about Barber and strongly suggested the former Giants running back, “Chill out. Watch yourself. And know who you’re talking about.”