SI

ESPN’s Marty Smith Shares Emotional Reaction to NASCAR Noose Incident

In Monday’s Hot Clicks: Marty Smith goes off on whoever put a noose in Bubba Wallace’s garage, two big rugby hits and more.

Dan Gartland

Tell ’em, Marty

NASCAR may have banned the Confederate flag, but weeding out racism will be much harder. 

On Sunday at Talladega, people flew the flag outside the track and there was even a plane towing a rebel flag and a banner that read “Defund NASCAR” flying overhead. A limited number of fans were allowed into the track (before the race was postponed by rain) and all of them abided by the ban. 

There was one sickening incident of racism, though. NASCAR announced late Sunday night that a noose had been discovered inside the garage of Bubba Wallace, the circuit’s only Black driver and the man who was brave enough to urge NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag. The incident is under investigation. 

After the news broke, ESPN’s Marty Smith, who had been covering the race, joined Scott Van Pelt on SportsCenter to share his reaction. Smith’s response was powerful. He spoke uninterrupted for nearly five minutes about how shocking and disappointing it was that someone with close access to the drivers would do something so hateful.

“This sport is moving forward,” Smith said. “This sport is in a progressive mod. This sport is in a moment where this crap, this despicable crap, is not only not acceptable, but there’s just no place for it. Whomever that is, I hope that you are so ashamed of yourself. I hope that you realize that that is someone’s dignity and that is someone’s positioning in this sport, who has earned his place by talent and by hard work and he stood up for something that he believed. He asked for help from other people who believe similarly. The measures were taken to start taking those steps. 

“And then we come down here, to a place that I love—I love Talladega, Alabama, it’s my favorite place on the NASCAR tour, it’s my favorite race, I love the staff here—and then something like this happens?! In the garage area?! In the garage area of Richard Petty’s racecar?! For a young man in Bubba Wallace who has galvanized so many people because he was willing to stand up for something that is so long overdue and NASCAR’s current management agrees that it was time to take this stand. And then somebody goes and does this. You’re not just hurting one or two people, whomever you are. You’re hurting a whole lot of people who made the decision that it’s damn sure time to go be better. And it pisses me the hell off and it pisses everybody else in the sport off who care, who care not only for Bubba but for every other person who he is standing up for. I am so sorry that we even have to have this discussion tonight.”

And he kept going from there. The whole video is certainly worth your time. Incredibly, Smith manages to work some reporting into his passionate monologue. He said that he was told by a “senior NASCAR official” that the person responsible will be banished from sport. He also reported that Wallace never saw the noose himself.

Every sane person should have the same reaction to this news that Smith did. It’s horrifying and I can only hope that they find whoever was stupid and hateful enough to risk their job so they could be a racist. 

The best of SI

The setting was strange, but Tiz the Law’s Belmont Stakes win could be start of a Triple Crown run. ... A Twins fan brought attention to the team’s statue of a racist former owner and the club took it down. ... Mississippi’s state flag is long past due to change and the SEC’s pressure might be enough to do it.

Around the sports world

A plane flew a Confederate flag over Talladega before the NASCAR race there and a noose was later found hanging in garage of Bubba Wallace. ... Brett Favre compared Colin Kaepernick sacrificing his NFL career in pursuit of social justice to Pat Tillman and thinks he’ll be remembered similarly. ... Heat big man Bam Adebayo thinks life in the NBA bubble will be better than the months-long layoff. ... A Connor McDavid rookie card sold for a record-breaking $135,000. ... A Russian soccer team decimated by COVID-19 was forced to play a lineup averaging 17 years old and lost 10–1.

Bubba didn’t want to kill a crab

Americans Christian Pulisic and Gio Reyna had a nice showing in Europe this weekend

Get that out of here

LeBron can’t wait for barbershops to reopen

Pat McAfee tries the Australian Football League ball

Through the wickets

Content is unavailable

He ran straight through the guy

And he just got planted

Not sports

Here’s the workout Jamie Foxx is using to train for his role as Mike Tyson. ... Kid Rock’s Nashville bar lost its beer license for violating COVID-19 restrictions. ... An American man traveled to the ocean’s deepest point, 60 years after his dad did the same thing. ... A company is making Grateful Dead deodorant. 

I’m sorry, the strip club is called what?

Read into the history of this bus if you aren’t familiar with it

This guy looks like he just got off work at the bank

A good song

Email dan.gartland@si.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.

Published
Dan Gartland
DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland is the writer and editor of Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, covering everything an educated sports fan needs to know. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).

Home/Extra Mustard