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Ex Dallas Cowboys Receiver Terrell Owens, Holly Robinson Peet, And ESPN’s The Captain Director Randy Wilkins React To Stephen A. Smith’s Comments On Jerry Jones Viral Photo

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Stephen A. Smith defended Jerry Jones after a 1957 photo showed him among a group of white young men blocking the path of Black students attempting to desegregate a school in Arkansas, which went to be known as “Little Rock Nine.”

“I’m pretty pissed off,” Smith said on a recent First Take segment discussing the newly surfaced photo of the Dallas Cowboys owner when he was 14. “I’m pissed off but not for reasons people think. I am very, very fond of Jerry Jones, and I’m not hiding that from anybody. Is his record perfect? No, but I’m pissed off because he doesn’t deserve what just happened. He doesn’t deserve it. One report, our report, said he was 14 years old. Another report said he was 15 years old. At minimum that’s 65 years ago.”

The photograph was taken 65 years ago, on September 9, 1957, in North Little Rock High, Arkansas, “You gonna bring up a photo of Jerry Jones standing at this protest, no question what was happening, it’s not something that anybody as a Black person should be appreciative about,” he continued. “We had six students at that particular North Little Rock high school trying to desegregate the school. Nobody should be okay with that, and we understand that; we get all of that. … Racism is alive and well; bigotry and prejudice are alive. We get all of that, but are you gonna bring up a photo of him when he was 14 or 15? 65 or 66 years ago.”

Smith went on to accuse reporters covering the photo of “making an attempt” to bring “canceling culture” on Jones, who has never hired a black coach.  

“You’re making an attempt to eradicate him,” he continued. “By the way, I don’t have a problem with a photo. If he was 30, 35, 40 years old, that’s different. 14, 15 years old…We’re gonna lean on somebody was he was 14, born and raised in the south? And we gonna pick it up 66 years later, to say, ‘You know something, you ain’t hire a Black coach.’ I think that’s pretty low. … If he were an adult, that would be different.”

After hearing what Smith had to say, the former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens responded in his IG comment section, “Well, what about the “now” Jerry Jones that told his players that if they knelt in protest of the social injustice issues that they couldn’t play for the Cowboys?!!”

ESPN’s The Captain director Randy Wilkins tweeted, “Someone ask Stephen A. how old Emmett Till was when he got murdered.”

Finally, Holly Robinson Peet tweeted SMH emojis.

LeBron James recently shared why he is not a fan of the Dallas Cowboys anymore.

“Nah man I had to sit put on the Cowboys man. It just a lot of things that were going on when guys were kneeling, guys had freedom of speech and wanted to do it in a very peaceful manner,” James said. “A lot of people in their front office, a lot of people running the organization was like, ‘If you do that around here, then you will never play for this franchise again.’ I didn’t think that was appropriate.”

However, he does still have love for some of the Cowboys players.

“I like a lot of the players on the team still, you know I love CeeDee Lamb, obviously our boy (Ezekiel Elliott), you know a Buckeye, I still message with him. I love Micah Parsons, he’s a dog, oh my god. Micah Parsons is a dog, Trevon Diggs, you know.”

What do you think?

Written by Byron Nelson

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