Stephen A. Smith considers ESPN suspension over Ray Rice comments ‘blemish’ he didn’t deserve

It’s been more than a decade since Stephen A. Smith endured his lone suspension from ESPN, but he still contests the punishment.

Danyel Smith recently interviewed Smith for Rolling Stone for a wide-ranging discussion. At one point, the conversation broached the time Smith earned a suspension from ESPN for comments he made about Ray Rice’s suspension from the NFL. In 2014, Smith suggested some women may “provoke” domestic violence incidents while discussing Rice’s suspension for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy.

Rice was suspended for two games after being arrested and charged with assault. Video of the incident was released shortly after the arrest, showing Rice knocking his partner out in an Atlantic City elevator and then dragging her into the hallway.

Danyel Smith asked the ESPN host about his comments on domestic violence being a “misstep,” while adding, “your reputation with regard to how you may or may not view women has not always been super top-line.”

“Nobody’s perfect,” Smith answered. “Everybody and their mother advises me, ‘Don’t revisit it. It’s a no-win situation.’ To me, that’s cowardice. I know what I said. And what I did was utter the word “provoke.” A former colleague at ESPN took it, ran with it, and it went ballistic on Twitter. The leadership at ESPN reacted to that. When the heat elevated, [they] said, “We have to suspend you.” And that’s a blemish on my career I do not believe I deserve. I’ve been consistent in that position. I’m a father of two daughters. I know what I’ve never condoned or excused. Unfortunately, we live in an immature society where people are not deducing right from wrong and contextualizing things properly.”

Below is the clip from a July 2014 episode of First Take where Smith made the comments on domestic violence that caused ESPN to give him the lone suspension of his career.

“We keep talking about the guys,” Smith told then-co-host Skip Bayless. “We know you have no business putting your hands on a woman. I don’t know how many times I got to reiterate that. But as a man who was raised by women, see, I know what I’m going to do if somebody touches a female member of my family. I know what I’m going to do, I know what my boys are going to do. I know what, I’m going to have to remind myself that I work for the Worldwide Leader, I’m going to have to get law enforcement officials involved because of what I’m going to be tempted to do.

“But what I’ve tried to implore the female members of my family, some of who you all met and talked to and what have you, is that again, and this is what, I’ve done this all my life, let’s make sure we don’t do anything to provoke wrong actions. Because if I come, or somebody else come, whether it’s law enforcement officials, your brother or the fellas that you know, if we come after somebody has put their hands on you, it doesn’t negate the fact that they already put their hands on you. So, let’s try to make sure that we can do our part in making sure that that doesn’t happen.”

Smith made those comments on Friday, July 24. He returned to the airwaves the following Monday with an apology. On Tuesday, then-ESPN president John Skipper announced Smith would not appear on the network for one week. ESPN never referred to the forced week off as a suspension, but that’s effectively what it was.

According to Smith, he initially had Skipper’s support, which is why he probably expected an apology to suffice. However, as backlash to the comments grew, ESPN ultimately opted to pull Smith off the air for one week.

Smith was not attempting to excuse domestic violence, but the tone-deaf assertion that women can provoke these incidents immediately overshadowed anything of value he may have had to say about Ray Rice.