ESPN’s Paul Finebaum Apologizes For Saying ‘This Country Does Not Oppress Black People’

ESPN college football personality Paul Finebaum has come under fire for comments he made on his show Monday, for which he is now apologizing.

During an interview with SEC Network analyst Marcus Spears (excerpted below via Awful Announcing) Finebaum said that “This country has issues, but this country is not oppressing black people.”

The next day, he participated in a discussion on College Football Live (video again via Awful Announcing), in which he criticized Colin Kaepernick’s National Anthem protest.

I don’t understand where Colin is coming from in terms of this specific issue. He’s upset about the way minorities are being dealt with, in his words ‘oppressed,’ he’s talking about police brutality, sitting down during the national anthem, I don’t think he is the connector to those issues.

On Wednesday, Finebaum appeared on SportsCenter to apologize for his remarks.

I could spend the rest of my life trying to talk my way out of it, but I can’t. I blew it. I simply did not have a good grasp of the situation. I know better. I’ve lived in this country. I see what is going on all across the country fromm north to south, east to west. And I have no excuse. I can’t explain why I articulated the words the way they (sic) did. But I did. And there’s a public record of it. And there’s a natural reaction. And I respect that. And all I can say is I made a terrible mistake. In trying to express a feeling that I probably — not probably — I had no right to express.

Finebaum added, “My eyes are wider open today than they’ve ever been as a result.”

Check out the full video above, via ESPN.

[image via screengrab]

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