Tom Jones, Tampa Bay Times sports columnist and sports talk radio show host at 620 WDAE, apologized Friday for comments he made last week dismissing the accomplishments of legendary Grambling coach Eddie Robinson.
First reported by HBCU Sports, Jones initially commented that Robinson’s coaching accomplishments did not belong in the debate of all-time great coaches, such as Bear Bryant, Joe Paterno, Tom Osborne, Bobby Bowden or Nick Saban.
Those comments sparked viral outrage on social media and triggered discussion on national media outlets, including ESPN Radio and TV One.
#DearWhitePeople: Don’t Try To Diminish The Legacy Of Gramblin…
#DearWhitePeople: @ESPN’s @bomani_jones and @rolandsmartin Take Tampa Bay Times Columnist #TomJones To Task For Attempting To Diminish The Legacy Of @Grambling1901’s #EddieRobinson
Posted by Roland Martin on Friday, January 15, 2016
“My comments revealed more about me than they did about Eddie Robinson in terms of the way I look at Eddie Robinson’s career,” Jones said while making the apology on his radio show. “I was trying to point out that Grambling, in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, as we got later and deeper, it was a different game once integration took place. But clearly what he did over the course of his entire career did not deserve to be questioned in any way.”
“He deserves to be mentioned along with the Sabans and the Bear Bryants and the Joe Paternos”, Jones said. “I deserve everything I got the last couple of days. There was just no need to trample on his legacy.”
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Wow White media will never give credit to African-American accomplishments.
I respect him as a man for publicly acknowledging he was wrong.