Stephen A. Smith is drawing the ire of the Internet for his explanation of a goal during the Germany-Norway match in the Women's World Cup: "they might not have wanted to mess their hair up."
Appearing on ESPN's Sportscenter after the Golden State Warriors flattened the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 4 of the NBA Finals just past midnight on Friday, Smith kicked around comments on the nightly Top 10 highlights countdown. No. 6 was Norway's amazingly curled free kick, which found the net over the wall Germany built. The goal knotted the match at 1-1, which is how it ended.
Upon seeing this, ESPN analyst Tim Legler said the German players turning their heads was the reason why the soccer ball found the net with the tying goal. Smith joked, "they might not have wanted to mess their hair up," in reference to Germany's wall and failure to jump high enough to deflect the ball with their heads. He then repeated himself.
Oh, Stephen A. Definitely not the wisest attempted joke — especially when it can come across as undermining women on the stage of one of their grandest world sports.
This follows ESPN's one-week suspension of Smith last year for the First Take personality suggesting that women sometimes trigger domestic violence incidents. He later apologized live on the air.
We understand that the Finals just wrapped and that Stephen A. has been covering them thoroughly — but why have him and Legler chime in on the Top 10 countdown anyway?
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