Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey is standing his ground after criticizing Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles for bowing to Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade at the Paris Olympics.
Andrade, who won the gold medal in the floor exercise final, was celebrated on the podium by her American counterparts, who hailed her as a champion of the tatami.
Humphrey was not too happy about this and tweeted at the time: “This is literally disgusting.”
He explained things from his point of view on his podcast ‘Punch Line’ in its latest episode on Sunday.
‘Dude, let me tell you my perspective. I go on Twitter and I’m like, “What the fuck? Why are we bowing down to somebody? This is America, why are we bowing down to another country?” Honestly, I didn’t even know what country that was.
Rebeca Andrade (center) receives a bow from Americans Simone Biles (left) and Jordan Chiles (right)
Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey saw the scene and posted his disapproval on Twitter.
“I saw two people bowing and I thought this was crazy from a human and ethical point of view. I should never bow to anyone except God. So I said, ‘Wow, this is crazy.'”
‘I tweeted that and was like, “Wow, that’s Simone Biles. I might get killed by the Biles army.” Obviously I’m not a gymnast… I didn’t know if she had an army.’
Humphrey later said he didn’t think anything of his tweet until people approached him at practice and asked him about his comments.
That included team owner Steve Bisciotti and general manager Eric DeCosta, who asked him about his tweet.
He also said that his follower count skyrocketed and he received many comments with Brazilian flags and, as Humphrey said, “speaking Brazilian.”
“After I left practice, I was like, ‘What did I do?’ and they said, ‘Your tweet.’ I was like, ‘What’s up with that?’ I guess it became disrespectful to Brazil, I guess.”
‘The funny thing is that I thought, “This is great,” because the fans were getting stupid, so it didn’t affect me at all. I thought, “I’m exploding, I’m a bit like him right now.” I think there’s no such thing as bad media.’
Humphrey said he tried to learn “a little Brazilian” so he could respond to the many tweets he was receiving.
His tweet provoked the anger of Brazilians who enjoyed the Americans’ show of respect.
Humphrey even decided to poke fun at former first lady Michelle Obama on his show.
It should be noted that when his co-host and editor corrected him to say that people in Brazil speak Portuguese, he upped the ante by calling the language “Brazilian” before saying, “If you’re going to insult me, at least translate it into English and then publish it.”
After listening to Bisciotti and DeCosta, he spoke about a response to Michelle Obama’s bow.
‘It was like three days later that she said, ‘I think this is a really cool thing,’ not necessarily because of me, but it was. I was like, ‘Does Michelle Obama know me?’ It’s like fire.
“I was in the White House next to (Barack) Obama, so she probably looked at me with googly eyes when I was in college. I’m just saying I was in her house.”
Humphrey concluded: “In short, I honestly never disrespected the Brazilian people, but I did disrespect them. I thought I’d make peace and then I said, ‘I didn’t actually do anything’… Honestly, I don’t even know where Brazil is on the map. That’s why it would be difficult for me to have a real conflict with Brazil.”
Fortunately for Humphrey, he is not playing for the Philadelphia Eagles or the Green Bay Packers, the two teams that will open their season in Brazil on Friday.
He said, ‘I’m not going to lie, I’ll say this, if we were playing in Brazil I wouldn’t leave my hotel room, I wouldn’t go in.’