Shannon Sharpe Calls Jake Fromm’s Leaked Messages ‘Textbook Racism’
Former Georgia Bulldogs quarterback Jake Fromm engaged in “textbook racism,” according to Undisputed‘s Shannon Sharpe. In Friday’s segment, which Sharpe posted on Twitter, the former Denver Broncos superstar explained why he also believes there are going to be more incidents like Fromm’s over the next few months.
During the segment in question, Sharpe expressed his anger over the text messages Fromm exchanged with an unidentified woman. One of those texts which the woman shared on Twitter, showed Fromm saying only “elite white people” can buy guns. Not long after the texts were posted, they went viral and reactions from around the NFL started pouring in.
Sharpe started the segment by saying, he believed the kind of texts the quarterback sent are at the “crux of the argument” that African Americans have been trying to make.
“This is textbook definition of racism. He thinks he’s entitled to something solely based on the color of his skin. That’s what racism is! That’s it in a nutshell. Go the dictionary and look up racism, he’s just defined it, laid it out for you. I’m entitled to something that you’re not because the color of my skin.”
Sharpe added “that’s how its been,” since people of color were first brought to the United States in 1619.
The former player then said he believes there are going to be more of these kinds of things coming out over the next three to six months. He added there are “three kinds of people who will tell you the truth, drunks, kids and angry people,” and said whoever leaked the text messages is angry.
— JakefromStateFromm (@FrommJake) June 4, 2020
Sharpe then said he knows he was a very good athlete, but added he never thought he was a better player because of the color of his skin. He knew he had what it took to get to the NFL but that was because of the hard work he put in to become as good as he was.
The former NFL tight end then said that he thinks Fromm doesn’t believe the second amendment should apply to people of color. Sharpe took issue with most people’s understanding of that amendment but said that if one wants to accept it at face value, it still doesn’t say anything about not being able to take advantage because of the color of someone’s skin.
On Thursday afternoon, Fromm posted an apology in a tweet, acknowledging the text messages were authentic and that he never should have used the words that he did.
