49ers Suspend Broadcaster for Saying Lamar Jackson’s ‘Dark Skin’ Gave Him an Advantage

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that broadcaster Tim Ryan of the Bay Area sports talk radio show “Murph and Mac” has been suspended for remarks made about Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. 

On Monday, Ryan discussed Jackson’s Week 13 performance in the Ravens’ 20-17 victory over the 49ers the previous day where he threw for 105 yards and rushed for 101 yards. When Ryan spoke about the signal caller’s exceptional ability to run the read-option offense, he said, “He’s really good at that fake, Lamar Jackson, but when you consider his dark skin 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 and if you’re a half step slow on him in terms of your vision forget about it, he’s out of the gate.”

The weird part about Ryan’s cringe-worthy comment is that the remark just rolled off his tongue as he was showering Jackson with praise. 

“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,” 49ers officials said in a statement. “We know Tim as a man of high integrity and are confident he will grow and learn from this experience.” The Niners have also reportedly tried to contact Ravens’ officials to “extend our apologies and assure them the matter is not being taken lightly.” 

In a statement of his own, Ryan said, “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.”