Stephen A. Smith to Chip Kelly’s Non-Black Defenders: ‘Y’all Are Getting on My Damn Nerves’

Stephen A. Smith once again attacked Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly and his defenders “who may not share” his “skin pigmentation” on Thursday’s “First Take” on ESPN2 and said, “Y’all are getting on my damn nerves.”

Smith over the last few months has hinted that Kelly’s transactions are driven by a racial narrative but he said nobody has actually flat-out called Kelly a racist, although former player LeSean McCoy said there is a reason that Kelly “got rid of all of the black players,” and “First Take” co-host Skip Bayless reminded Smith that former Eagles assistant coach Tra Thomas felt there was a “hint of racism.”

“I have no problem with the black players on the Philadelphia Eagles taking their position. You communicate with Chip Kelly directly. You know him and you know, you want to sit there and poo-poo the notion of racist or racism and all of that stuff, you go right ahead. I’m here to tell you they’re probably right. Most of America, who don’t happen to be this color or share my pigmentation, let me say to the Chip Kelly defenders, you all are getting on my damn nerves. I’m losing my patience with people.”

“Let me be clear,” he continued. “This is the problem. You got people out here, they want to put black folks in a box. They want to say, ‘Oh, you are calling him racist.’ No, they didn’t. He said they have a problem dealing with the brothers. They very well could have been saying, ‘Look, we ain’t white, we ain’t Hispanic, we ain’t Native American, we ain’t Jewish.’ We are black men and there is a certain kind of way if you come at us it is going to be an affront to us. We are not going to absorb it the way someone white, Jewish, Asian, Latino may absorb it. We are not saying you are a racist. We aren’t invoking the ‘R word.’ What we are saying is, ‘We aren’t comfortable with you because the manner in which you communicate with us is different than how we watch you communicating with other people.”

Smith concluded, “Tra Thomas has been in this league a long time, playing for Andy Reid many years; never uttered a peep. Ever.”