Stephen A. Smith admits 2014 ESPN suspension for Ray Rice comments was a ‘devastating blow

Credit: What’s Your Story? With Steph McMahon

More than a decade removed from his one and only suspension from ESPN, Stephen A. Smith admits the punishment was a “devastating blow.”

Smith was featured in the latest episode of What’s Your Story? With Steph McMahon, where he spoke about taking pride in the ability to learn from vulnerable moments. One of those moments occurred when Smith was suspended by ESPN in 2014 for comments he made about Ray Rice assaulting his then-fiancée . After the NFL suspended Rice, Smith went on First Take and suggested some women may “provoke” domestic violence incidents.

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“My attitude is, if you’re around a no-good bastard who would put his hands on a woman, my attitude is do what you can to get out that situation in that moment until help arrives,” Smith told McMahon. “And that’s how I meant it to come across. It did not come across that way. And because it did not come across that way, Disney informed me of the need to apologize for that. And then even after I apologized, they reprimanded me. They suspended me, and that had never happened to me in my career. It was a devastating blow because I know my name has no business ever being associated with domestic violence.”

Despite categorizing it as a “devastating blow,” Smith was still able to take something positive from the suspension, claiming he was educated on domestic violence and the trauma experienced by victims.

“I didn’t know that,” Smith continued to McMahon. “And so, who the hell am I to tell somebody how they’re supposed to feel when they’re experiencing something I never experienced?”

Below are the comments about Rice’s domestic violence incident from a 2014 edition of First Take that led to Smith’s only suspension from ESPN.

“We keep talking about the guys,” Smith told then-co-host Skip Bayless. “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 implore the female members of my family, some of whom you all met and talked to and what have you, is that again, and this is 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. So, let’s try to make sure that we can do our part in making sure that that doesn’t happen.”

Smith made the comments on Friday, July 24, 2014. He was back on-air the following Monday and offered an apology, which, as he told McMahon, came under Disney’s direction. But the apology ultimately was not enough to temper the reaction, with ESPN later announcing Smith would not appear on the network for one week.

Smith has since claimed he did not deserve the suspension . And while he was not attempting to excuse domestic violence during the 2014 segment of First Take , Smith’s tone-deaf suggestion that women can “provoke” attacks overshadowed anything productive he may have had to say about the Ray Rice incident and suspension.

Despite believing he didn’t deserve the suspension, Smith does claim to have learned from the controversial comments. And he continues to keep that same mindset of finding value in being educated whenever people take issue with something he says, citing past comments on Shohei Ohtani and Ayesha Curry as examples.

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