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Stephen A Smith Apologizes for Lane Johnson and Mental Health Comments
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Stephen A Smith apologized on Thursday for mocking Lane Johnson’s retirement:
“My intent was joking about the Eagles. Bottom line is this – it doesn’t matter what my intent was. It’s how it’s perceived. I messed up. By the way, for those of you out there (watching) right now, this is not ESPN. This is not somebody forcing me to make an apology. Nobody did that. Nobody can do that. Here’s the reality of the situation – I was wrong. And when you’re an adult and a man you have to admit that you were wrong. I was wrong to Lane Johnson, I was wrong to the Philadelphia Eagles. I messed up because I made light of the issue of mental health. That was not my intent but it wasn’t made clear enough.”
He went on to talk about people dealing with mental health issues. It seemed like a pretty comprehensive apology, but litigating apologies is corny. The only thing that matters is whether or not Lane Johnson accepts what Stephen A has to say.
Of course, not all situations are the same. Johnson has had a long and public battle with anxiety and depression. He took a leave of absence in 2021 and was among several Eagles players to talk openly about their issues. Brandon Brooks was another guy at the forefront of that.
When Lane walked away this week, a lot of fans/media/etc. recalled Johnson’s history with mental health and accepted what he said at face value.
That wasn’t the same as Ben Simmons leaving the Sixers, for example, which was riddled with skepticism. Ben didn’t show up at practice and held out and it was later in that timeline, after Doc Rivers kicked him out of a session, that we heard about mental health for the first time, so a decent portion of people here believed it to be bullshit. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t, but the situation differed. Ben’s mental health claim didn’t come to light in the same way that Lane Johnson and Brandon Brooks talked about their struggles.
Anyway, like I said yesterday, after the Za’Darius Smith revelation, I don’t know how anybody can jump to conclusions. Some people accused Smith of quitting on the Eagles after four games, same as Lane, but it was later discovered that his grandmother, mother, and father had died. So whatever we think we know, we don’t. Combine that with the taboo nature of mental health claims, and there’s not much anybody on the outside can say that really matters.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com