Jemele Hill sparked outrage after she said the Atlanta Falcons should have hired Deion Sanders because he’s Black, and not Kevin Stefanski, who’s white.
In her post, Jemele said Falcons fans are upset over Stefanski’s handling of rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders when he was the head coach of the Cleveland Browns.
“They LOVE Deion in the ATL,” Jemele wrote.
“It’s a Black city, with one of the Blackest fan bases in the NFL, and they have a Black QB in their roster – so a lot of ATL fans are side-eying this hire. Stefanski isn’t going to get a honeymoon there.”
Sports journalist Jason Whitlock tweeted:
“We used to never talk about sports this way. Sports conversations have been degraded in the name of DEI.”
Stefanski was run out of Cleveland because he refused to start rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders until mid-season when rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel was injured.
Jemele was recently criticized for backtracking on her statement about a reporter after finding out she was Black.
Jacksonville reporter Lynn Jones-Turpin told Jaguars head coach Liam Coen to “Hold your head up,” following the team’s loss in the NFL playoffs earlier this month.
Jemele tweeted: “That can’t be a reporter. Cause if so, I would not have used the term awesome.”
Jemele backtracked after Jaguars fans roasted her on X:
“What I would say to my fellow media members — and to the general public — is that if we’re going to have this much discourse about @JacksonvilleFP reporter Lynn Jones, the very least we could do is follow her publication on social media and subscribe. This is one of the few Black newspapers still in existence.”
