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Stephen A. Smith is making it very clear which side of the debate he stands on in the Ryan Clark and Robert Griffin III debate.
Clark and RG3 went viral for their commentary on the Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark moment during the Fever-Sky game last Saturday, May 17. Clark responded to RG3's claim that Angel “hated” Caitlin in a social media post, which is something that Clark didn't agree with.
Clark said that RG3 is “not having conversations at home about what Black women have to endure in this country,” considering his wife, Grete Griffin, is a white woman. While the comments between Clark and RG3 have social media split, Smith is making it known how he interprets the feud.
“I don’t want to hear s–t about Ryan Clark getting fired,” Smith said on his YouTube channel. “I don’t want to hear that. Ryan Clark is my colleague, he is my friend and brother. He is a good man and he’s a good brother. And there is no way on earth that I would be quiet if he was fired over something like this.
While Smith didn't agree with Clark getting RG3's wife involved in the feud, he didn't think Clark's actions are a “fireable offense.”
“I’m not saying he’s right, and I’ll get into that in a second. But this is not a fireable offense… I don’t usually talk about ESPN business. And I’m not going to right now. Other than to say, RGIII clearly is not liked by Ryan Clark. What Ryan Clark said — that’s not something he normally does. ‘Corny, phony,’ those are the kinds of things he said specifically about RGIII. That’s what he feels.”
“I love my man RC,” Smith continued. “I thought he crossed the line when he brought up you, RGIII, being married, not once, but twice to white women. There was no need to go there. But he don’t like your a**. That might have had something to do with it.”
RG3 was married to Rebecca Liddicoat, who is white, from 2013-2016. He then married his wife Grete in 2018. The couple share four daughters together. As for Clark, he's been married to his wife, a Black woman, Yonka Clark since 2004. Clark made headlines this week as Jaden, his eldest child is biracial, amid the claims on RG3's dating history. RG3 and Clark used to be teammates on Washington Redskins (now Commanders) in 2014.
Smith shared that if Clark would have went to him for advice, he would have told him to respond differently.
“I’m not condoning him doing that. I’m not condoning him bringing that up. If RC and I had spoke about it in-depth, I would have told him, ‘Don’t go there. There’s no need for all of that,'” Smith added.
The First Take host also made it clear that he believes Clark was attacking RG3, not his wife.
“But I want to emphasize something very important. RGIII, he never attacked your wife. He never attacked your family. He was attacking you, and you know it,” Smith said. “Now, that don’t make it correct, the mentioning of your wife. I’ll concede that. He didn’t utter a negative syllable about your wife. He never mentioned your children. So when you say (he was) attacking your wife and attacking your family, your children. How did he do that? Ryan Clark did not do that.
“He talked about you and your behavior. He talked about how you lean towards highlighting her ethnicity. I don’t know whether that’s true or not. I pay no attention to that stuff. But I know what he said. And he was saying she was much more than the color of her skin. He did in no way denigrate your wife and he never mentioned your children.”
Ryan Clark Apologizes to RG3 Over Wife Comments
Clark has since apologized to RG3 for his statements.
“All of it started over an Angel Reese take that he felt was a sports take that I didn't feel that way about. I felt it was away from the court, I felt it was away from basketball . . .” Clark said in a recent YouTube post. “I took a take that was personal to another person and made it personal to myself, and I shouldn't have done that.”
Clark admitted that some previous tension in his relationship with RG3, “played a part in how I felt.”
“I wanted to defend a young Black woman, which ended up being an attack on him, he felt, or at least he said, an attack on his family. And that was never the case, or never the intent, of mine,” Clark said.
“She should not have been brought up in me trying to make a point about how having Black women close to you, and the things that you learn from them, can help you in the way that you approach and speak to and about them. She didn’t need to be the illustration of that. I can speak positively about what they are without making the insinuation that it’s something that non-Black women don’t do well…” Clark continued.
Clark then addressed RG3's wife and shared his changed his thoughts on why he now thought it was inappropriate to bring her up.
“To Grete, I was out of line. I was out of bounds. I apologize. To all the people who don’t like RG’s take or takes or the way that he moves, or even if you just, in this conversation, take my side and want to support me, leave his family alone… Families should be off limits. I started that by bringing her into it. I see that. No matter what my intent was, the impact was different. If I had to do it all over again, I would do it a different way.”
