Stephen A. Smith Says Tim Tebow Still Embodied White Privilege Despite Getting Cut from Jaguars: Black People Never Even ‘Get the Opportunity’

The Tim Tebow tight end experiment is over. After one preseason game, where his only highlights were blocking gaffes, the Jacksonville Jaguars announced Tebow has been released, ending his comeback attempt to the NFL.

When Tebow stunned the sports world earlier this year by signing with the Jaguars and his former college coach Urban Meyer, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith labeled the experiment an example of White privilege. Now that the experiment has been deemed a failure after just one preseason game, Smith still believes Tebow embodies White privilege.

“We’re not talking about Tim Tebow, we all root for him individually as the person, as the man. What we were talking about is exactly what you just brought up,” Smith said to his First Take co-host Max Kellerman. “Opportunity. People think – he didn’t get the job, well I got news for you Max. There’s a whole bunch of Black folks that never even get the opportunity.”

“Coaches and organizations usually wouldn’t give you the opportunity because you never paid your dues by playing the position before you tried to play it at an elite level,” Smith continued. “And that’s when issues of race and things of that nature come into the fray. Because the opportunity is what we illuminate. It’s not even the result. It’s the opportunity that’s accorded to others that would NEVER be accorded to us.”

Kellerman later asked Smith, “Were Tim Tebow Black, would he get the opportunity?”

After Smith defiantly answered “no,” Kellerman added, “It’s hard to say because you might say, he couldn’t be Tim Tebow if he was African American. Maybe his popularity never reaches that height.”

Tebow’s popularity might play a role in the repeated opportunities he’s afforded in football, baseball and the media. But it ultimately didn’t impact Meyer’s decision when it comes to trimming the Jaguars roster. During his few months in Jacksonville, Meyer and the Jaguars thwarted Tebow’s popularity by limiting his interviews and media access.

“I’ve heard through the grapevine, that Urban Meyer was very taken aback by my position with Tim Tebow weeks ago,” Smith later added. That “position,” was labeling Tebow’s opportunity as an example of White privilege after the former quarterback signed with Jacksonville.

Watch above via ESPN