Stephen A. Smith releases statement following xenophobic comments about Shohei Ohtani

UPDATE:

Stephen A. Smith has taken to Twitter to apologize for his comments regarding Shohei Ohtani.

I'm sincerely sorry. pic.twitter.com/pANjWTrD4X

— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) July 12, 2021

FROM EARLIER:

Stephen A. Smith has said some pretty stupid things during his time on television but what he said on Monday about MLB slugger Shohei Ohtani takes the cake and he deserves to be taken off the air.

Take a listen as Smith says Ohtani should not be considered a face of baseball because he needs an interpreter.

Stephen A Smith saying that Shohei Ohtani, responsible for the 10 highest viewed regular season games this year and what will likely be the most watched HRD ever, shouldn’t be considered a face of baseball because he needs an interpreter. Kindly piss off

https://t.co/NlCXPGxKFj

— Brian Schlosser (@brian_slosh) July 12, 2021

As you can imagine, fans absolutely destroyed Smith for his ignorant comment.

Stephen A Smith sucks https://t.co/LZKQVTqIzp

— Fuzzy (@fuzzyfromyt) July 12, 2021

I'll pull the whole thing since First Take is re-airing on ESPN 2 right now but here's another bit pic.twitter.com/FpXTkUvBW6

— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) July 12, 2021

https://twitter.com/VinRBI/status/1414614609479180296?s=20

https://twitter.com/themanzcj/status/1414606592268546048?s=20

The Rachel Nichols story dominated the discussion last week. This Stephen A. Smith comment should get similar attention this week. https://t.co/0IwV1kpP0R

— Billy Reinhardt (@BillyReinhardt) July 12, 2021

https://twitter.com/dluzthegoat/status/1414640452112879625

https://twitter.com/T4LKevo/status/1414640438175281155

https://twitter.com/Da_Taylormaniac/status/1414640421192491014

Yikes!