The San Francisco 49ers have suspended a team broadcaster for a remark he made about the skin color of Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson after the two teams played each other on Sunday.
During an appearance on a show on San Fran radio station KNBR, analyst Tim Ryan indicated Jackson was especially good at pulling off play fakes because his skin is very dark.
“[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. “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.”
Snippet of Tim Ryan’s comments RE: Lamar Jackson’s “dark skin with a dark football with a dark uniform… you could not see that thing” via KNBR. He has since been suspended by the team pic.twitter.com/vpRI3veoXK
— 49ersHive (@49ersHive) December 5, 2019
San Francisco suspended Ryan for a game for his comments and extended an apology to the Ravens organization.
“I regret my choice of words in trying to describe the conditions of the game,” Ryan said in a statement to The San Francisco Chronicle. “Lamar Jackson is an MVP-caliber player and I respect him greatly. I want to sincerely apologize to him and anyone else I offended.”
The Ravens defeated the 49ers 20-17 with Jackson rushing for 101 yards, his fourth 100-yard rushing game of the season.
Jackson, a front-runner to be named NFL MVP, needs 63 yards rushing to surpass Michael Vick for the most rushing yards by a quarterback in a single season. Vick ran for 1,039 yards in 2006.
“It’d be an honor,” Jackson said Wednesday. “Mike Vick’s my favorite player. For me to do such a thing is incredible. He had that record for a long time. It would be pretty cool, but I’m focused on the win regardless.”
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