Following his rant about women and violence, Stephen A. Smith will not appear on First Take or ESPN Radio for the next week, ESPN announced today.
Smith will not appear on either the television show First Take or on ESPN radio during the suspension. He will return to work next Wednesday, ESPN said in a statement.
Last Friday, while addressing the two-game suspension of NFL running back Ray Rice, Smith made several comments about women provoking attackers.
We keep talking about the guys. 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 employ the female members of my family, some of who you all met and talked to and what have you, is that again, and this 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.
However, he defended his own advice that women not provoke attackers.
Smith later issued another statement on Twitter per ESPN reps calling the series of tweets an "inadequate" apology.