Yesterday, the National Organization for Women released a statement calling for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's resignation. "The NFL has lost its way. It doesn't have a Ray Rice problem; it has a violence against women problem," the statement read.
First Take host Cari Champion read a passage from this statement on the show, and then debate was embraced. Skip Bayless said that maybe Goodell should go; Stephen A. Smith went full Facebook commenter.
"I'm sorry, I think this woman is off her rocker. I think she's lost her mind," Smith said. "That's right, I said it."
It's basically never advisable to keep saying things after saying, "I said it," but Smith didn't stop there.
"This is the most ridiculous nonsense I've ever heard in my life. Roger Goodell deserves to lose his job? Why are you acting like he's Ray Rice? Roger Goodell didn't hit Janay Palmer Rice. He hasn't hit any women. And by the way, the last time I checked, Skip, why are we talking about the NFL as if it's some cesspool for domestic violence? There's a few cases. It's being dealt with."
Champion stepped in about halfway through, saying, "Well, we gotta wrap," but Smith was working himself up.
"What the hell is this?" he asked. And then he started to yell, ranting for another minute and a half before ESPN cut to commercial.
This isn't a good look for a guy just over a month removed from a suspension he earned for talking about how women should make sure not to make men beat the shit out of them. The NFL quite obviously has a domestic violence problem, and actions like Goodell's initial bullshit two-game suspension of Rice are an obvious reason why. Goodell is, as Smith's colleague Keith Olbermann said, "an enabler of men who beat women." That Smith doesn't see this, or doesn't care, really tells us all we need to know about him.
[ESPN2]