Add Sha’Carri Richardson to the list of athletes that force people into their feelings. The American sprinter first grabbed headlines for losing her spot on the US Olympic Team after testing positive for marijuana use. Over the weekend, she competed in the Prefontaine Classic and delivered two disappointing performances. That set off a war of words on Twitter that included Emmanuel Acho and Marcellus Wiley of FS1 and Clinton Yates and Ryan Clark of ESPN.
It started with Acho tweeting a shot at Richardson for her last place finish in the 100 meters at the event. Yates quickly fired back.
Acho was not done needling Sha’Carri Richardson and her fans though. Tweeting essentially the same thing for a second time, this time Acho caught the attention of Ryan Clark, who fired back.
This is where it escalated. Acho explained his position in multiple tweets. In one, he took exception to Yates saying that Acho has a history of disrespecting black women in sports.
He also tried to explain to Clark why he was being so hard on Richardson.
Not content to sit on the sidelines and let his Speak For Yourself co-star speak for himself, Marcellus Wiley entered the fray with his sights set firmly on Clark. Of course, Clark wasn’t going to sit by and not defend himself, so that started a thread between those two.
The conclusion to the whole back and forth either included some friendly fire or two colleagues high-fiving over creating headlines. It is hard to tell which.
Wiley called it besr, truth is more important than racial feelings. She’carri first couldn’t stay off the green and missed the Olympics, then got all her Nike money, Kanye video exposure, and proceeds to come in last place? That’s just terrible.