What Smith apparently doesn't understand is that Tebow is being given this highly irregular opportunity not because he's white, but because he has tremendous public and marketing appeal outside his football skills. If he's not good enough to make the team at a new position his career will end, but he's being given a chance to make the team because it's a great PR stunt by the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jacksonville organization knows that he brings a ton of energy and positive media coverage to the team, and it might just attract the attention of some fans who have refused to watch the NFL in recent years.
Smith is absolutely wrong when he says that no black player would be given the opportunity to do this. I contend that Reggie White would have been given a similar welcome back to the NFL if he had staged a comeback five years after his retirement -- and for the same reasons.
If Stephen Smith wants to make this a racial issue, perhaps he would do well to ask himself why so few black NFL players in recent years have had the kind of broad appeal for their character and personalities that Tim Tebow has.
Rookie mini camp for the Jags was last week. I'm a long-suffering Jets fan so I don't follow the Jags much, but I don't recall seeing one article about how Lawrence did, as compared to numerous media reports about Tebow, Tebow, Tebow.
No, Reggie “WHITE” privilege.