Stephen A. Smith Bashes Giants for Handling of Rooney Rule

Stephen A. Smith Calls Out New York Giants

Getty Stephen A. Smith

The New York Giants stole headlines all Tuesday morning, as their search for the team’s 19th head coach came to a shocking end. The team was set to meet with perceived favorite Matt Rhule on Tuesday afternoon. However, that interview never happened, as Rhule signed a massive contract with the Carolina Panthers before ever sitting down with the G-Men, although, it’s not like he didn’t try.

Once Big Blue caught wind of Rhule’s hiring in Carolina, they moved quickly, locking in former New England Patriots assistant Joe Judge as their new head football coach. While many Giants fans scoured the web trying to find out who Joe Judge is and his background as a coach, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith took the time to voice his displeasure with the way the Giants conducted their coaching search.

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Stephen A. Smith on Giants HC Hire “This is Some B.S.”

The New York Giants interviewed both Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and Dallas Cowboys defensive backs coach Kris Richards for their previously vacant head coaching position, both of whom are men of African American descent. However, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith believes that wasn’t enough, stating that “black men in the National Football League are being ostracized from key positions.”

Stephen A. Smith didn’t hold back on Tuesday’s airing of First Take, expressing his opinion that the Giants organization made a mockery of the Rooney Rule. The Rooney Rule is a policy brought into effect in 2003 by the late Dan Rooney, which requires teams to interview ethnic minority candidates for head coaching and senior football operation jobs before making a hire.

Take a look at Stephen A.’s explosive take on the situation is in the video below, which Smith himself shared to his Twitter page.

“We got a problem! This is some BS! There isn’t any way around this” Smith stated. “We’re moving in a reverse direction. We’re moving in a reverse direction. Black men are not being treated fairly in the National Football League. Someone has to say it.”

“This Rooney Rule is bogus, clearly. It’s being bypassed. It’s original intent is being circumvented…somebody needs to say it. Something has got to be done.”


Stephen A. Smith Weighs in on Giants HC Joe Judge

Prior to Stephen A. Smith’s outburst regarding the Rooney rule, he made sure to inform the nation that he “knows nothing about him” alluding to the New York Giants’ new head coach Joe Judge, and that this was not an attack specifically directed towards him.

Stephen A. is not alone, as Judge is certainly a new name amongst fans because he’s served outside of the spotlight for the majority of his career, most notably as a special teams coach for the past eight seasons.

With that said, Judge has worked alongside all-time great coaches such as Bill Belichick and Nick Saban over his 15-year coaching career, both of whom speaking glowingly about him. Judge may be unknown at the moment, but with his background, and building blocks such as Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley at his disposal, he can very well prove to be the right man for the job when all is said and done.

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