ESPN Commentator Speaks Ignorantly about Diabetes
Scott Benner
ESPN commentator Stephan A. Smith apparently doesn't like Chicago Bears quarterback and person with type 1 diabetes, Jay Cutler
I'm not a guy who watches ESPN 24/7 but I do know that Stephen A. Smith has been in the center of more than a few controversies - probably by design. Normally we'd want to ignore people who say inflammatory sh*t just to get noticed but in this situation... maybe Stephen needs to hear from the diabetes community.
At some point in this clip Mr. Smith will say - speaking about Cutler - something to the effect of...
And I understand... they'll be people out there that say type 2 diabetes... the way I look at it we live in an advanced society where there is medicine everywhere to help you out.
Now I don't care if Jay Cutler is a good quarterback, nor do I expect for everyone to be a diabetes expert. But we should not allow someone with a platform like this to flippantly dismiss diabetes as if it were something that you take an Advil to clear up. Shouldn't we expect at the very minimum that if an ESPN employee is going to dismiss a serious diseases and the person who has it... Shouldn't that callous idiot at the very least, make sure that they are maligning the disease that the person actually has? I mean how difficult is it to find out that Jay Cutler has type 1 diabetes?
Stephen A. Smith should get himself educated, publicly set the record straight, and apologize on ESPN First Take where he made his ridiculous remarks. As for ESPN, maybe they should choose more carefully who they allow to speak on their behalf.
If you watch the video please start at the 4 minute mark. You do not want to suffer this blowhard for any longer than need be...
I'm just going to leave these links here along with a hashtag...
Stephen A. Smith - Twitter
ESPN - Twitter - Facebook
ESPN First Take - Twitter - Facebook