ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith delivered a withering takedown of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick after learning the activist signal caller didn't vote in Tuesday's presidential election.
In a rant Wednesday posted on ESPN's "First Take" Facebook page, and on its Twitter feed:
Smith lashed out at Kaepernick for being a "hypocrite" in his silent protests of oppression in America by taking a knee during the national anthem.
"As far as I am concerned, Colin Kaepernick is absolutely irrelevant," Smith railed. "I don't want to see him again; I don't want to hear from him again; I don't wanna hear a damn word about anything he has to say about our nation — the issues that we have, racial injustices, needing change, etcetera, etcetera. He comes across as a flaming hypocrite."
And that was just the beginning.
"After all this noise that you made, even though you didn't intend to do so, by offending our military servicemen and women . . . to turn around and not to even take your behind to the polls to vote for a particular candidate — it is shameful! Absolutely shameful," he continued.
"Him of all people, because of the position he took, because of the attention he brought to the issues, the fact that you don't even have the decency to go to the polls and activate yourself in this election, as our president said, is a damn shame. I don't want to hear another word from Colin Kaepernick! It's a waste of time."
He also encouraged a press blackout.
"I would personally make a request to the media in this nation," he said. "Wherever he is, if he ain't on that football field trying to throw another damn incomplete pass, do me a favor and make sure of one thing: Take the camera away from him. It means nothing!"
The call for a media snub was echoed Thursday by Rush Limbaugh.
"Here's a guy who claims he's doing it because of social justice, that he can't stand to sit in a country and be in a country where minorities are so poorly treated – and on the one day where he really has something to say and do about it, he sits on his butt and doesn't go vote," Limbaugh said.
"As far as I'm concerned, Colin Kaepernick is a nonperson and doesn't serve one second more of media coverage."
Smith's rant drew no less than 13,000 comments, and Smith doubled down Thursday, saying the only thing he regretted was not adding the word "selfish" to his criticism of Kaepernick.
"I ain't backin' up one damn bit. I said it, I meant it," he said of his Wednesday takedown.
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