The San Francisco 49ers have suspended broadcaster Tim Ryan for comments he made about the skin color of Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson this past Monday, according to Matthias Gafni and Lauren Hernandez of The San Francisco Chronicle.
While speaking on KNBR's Murphy and Mac, Ryan, who is the 49ers' color commentator, said that Jackson was exceptionally good at faking handoffs because of his “dark skin color with a dark football.”
“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,” Ryan said. “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.”
49ers team officials said in a statement on Wednesday that they are “disappointed” in Ryan's remarks and that they will be suspending him for San Francisco's Week 14 matchup with the New Orleans Saints.
“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. “We know Tim as a man of high integrity and are confident he will grow and learn from this experience.”
Ryan later apologized.
“I regret my choice of words in trying to describe the conditions of the game,” he said. “Lamar Jackson is an MVP-caliber player and I respect him greatly. I want to sincerely apologize to him and anyone else I offended.”
Jackson, who is in his second NFL season, is leading Pro-Bowl voting.
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