The San Francisco 49ers have suspended broadcaster Tim Ryan for one game after his comments about Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson earlier this week.
During his weekly radio show "Murph and Mac" on Monday, Ryan talked about how Jackson's "skin color" made him more effective against the 49ers defense.
"He’s 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. I mean you literally could not see when he was in and out of the mesh point," he said.
Ryan has since issued a statement stating:
"I regret my choice of words in trying to describe the conditions of the game. 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 49ers released the following statement Wednesday:
"We are disappointed in Tim Ryan’s comments earlier this week, and have suspended him for the upcoming game. We hold Tim to a high standard as a representative of our organization and he must be more thoughtful with his words. Tim has expressed remorse in a public statement and has also done so with us privately. We know Tim as a man of high integrity and are confident he will grow and learn from this experience. We have reached out to the Baltimore Ravens organization to extend our apologies and assure them the matter is not being taken lightly."
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Rev. Jethroe Moore II, the President of NAACP Silicon Valley/San Jose, says he’d like to meet with Ryan before he returns from the suspension.
"Part of his coming back should be coming to meet with members of the African-American community for better understanding of how those words can be hurtful," Moore said. "That includes the 49er players and actually letting them talk about how they feel about the comments."
