The San Francisco 49ers and Pac-12 Network have both suspended announcer Ted Robinson for his comments on domestic violence.
Robinson co-hosted “The Tom Tolbert Show” on Bay Area sports radio station KNBR on Monday and discussed the Ray Rice situation. Robinson essentially scoffed at the notion that Janay Rice is a victim and demonstrated his ignorance towards the psychology behind women who return to their abusers.
The Twitter account LOL KNBR captured some of his thoughts.
Ted Robinson on Janay Rice: "How does she marry him after that? How does she go in front of Goodell (stand by him)? That's pathetic to me."
— LOL KNBR (@LOLKNBR) September 8, 2014
Ted Robinson literally just said Janay Rice's decision to marry Ray Rice and stand by him after the fact is pathetic. Said it twice.
— LOL KNBR (@LOLKNBR) September 8, 2014
Ted Robinson: "The *victim* here … bares some of the responsibility … for not speaking up … that to me is the saddest part of it."
— LOL KNBR (@LOLKNBR) September 8, 2014
Ted Robinson is now talking about a book he read last Summer about women who lure college athletes into potential sexual assault situations.
— LOL KNBR (@LOLKNBR) September 8, 2014
Seriously sounded like Ted Robinson was putting up parentheses with his fingers when he overemphasized the word *victim* a few minutes ago.
— LOL KNBR (@LOLKNBR) September 8, 2014
He was like, "The victim … [dramatic pause] … VICTIM … The victim … yada yada yada." with a slight chuckle in his voice. Creepy.
— LOL KNBR (@LOLKNBR) September 8, 2014
The 49ers announced that Robinson would be suspended for the team’s next two games. Here is a statement from team president Paraag Marathe:
“The comments made by radio broadcaster Ted Robinson on Monday were offensive and in no way reflect the views of the San Francisco 49ers organization. We have made the decision to suspend him for the next two games. I informed Ted of our decision earlier today, and we will continue to address this matter with him internally. Our organization stands strongly against domestic violence and will not tolerate comments such as these.”
And here is an apology statement from Robinson.
“I want to unconditionally apologize for my comments the other day. As a professional communicator, I am responsible for my words. My choice of words was careless and does not reflect my true feelings about domestic violence. I understand that the cycle of abuse keeps people in unhealthy relationships. No blame or responsibility for domestic violence should ever be placed on a victim.”
Pac-12 Networks also suspended Robinson two weeks.
The 49ers suspended an announcer for comments on domestic violence, but they allowed a player — Ray McDonald — who was arrested on felony domestic violence charges, to play in Week 1.
