ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith unloaded on the National Football League for weighing in on players breaking into President-elect Trump’s viral “YMCA” dance.
After several players celebrated touchdowns and sacks with the quirky dance moves, the NFL said it would not be taking any actions against them. This came after San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa was fined more than $11,000 because he wore a MAGA hat on camera.
Smith was “pissed off” that the league even felt the need to address the trend.
(Video Credit: Stephen A. Smith)
“Here’s why I’m pissed off, that the NFL had to even issue a statement about it. Because celebrations usually don’t warrant that,” he said on The Stephen A. Smith Show podcast.
“It doesn’t require a response from the league. So why was it necessary this time? You know why? Because we got a bunch of people still living with their heads in the cloud acting like they get to protest every little damn thing,” he contended.
“This is America. Donald Trump won the election, rather convincingly, I might add…” Smith continued, adding that “woke” and “cancel culture” not only led to Trump’s election landslide victory but also are behind the NFL’s need to address dance moves.
NFL makes surprising call over disciplining players doing the ‘Trump dance’ https://t.co/FGtsgVwAq6 via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) November 20, 2024
“And why am I ticked off? Because it was emblematic of the climate that we’ve been living in for years now, which is why I believe Donald Trump was really elected… woke culture, cancel culture, oh hell yes, that played a role,” Smith raged.
“When you got people walking around wondering whether or not they’re echoing the right pronoun. Wondering whether or not that was gonna cost them their job or being PC because, God forbid, your opinion is different than the average folk walking around in America. Lord knows what would happen to you. That’s what America regressed to,” he said.
‘TOTAL MAGA TAKEOVER’: Trump dance rocks NFL, even goes global https://t.co/Zb4fYHIJMe via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) November 18, 2024
“I got news for you,” Smith said. “Football players are usually American people. So are basketball players. So are UFC fighters, they got a right to support who the hell they want without the league needing to send in a response.”
San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa broke into the dance moves during a game as did Tennessee Titans wide receivers Calvin Ridley and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine. Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers, Detroit Lions defensive end Za’Darius Smith, and linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez did as well.
“I’ve seen everyone do it,” Bowers said, according to USA Today. “I watched the UFC fight last night and Jon Jones did it. I like watching UFC, so I saw it and thought it was cool.”
WOW! After viciously DESTROYING his opponent, Jon Jones did the iconic Trump YMCA dance and gave the president a thumbs up
Jones & Trump = GOATs pic.twitter.com/VBZps1f4rY
— George (@BehizyTweets) November 17, 2024
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