Mike Valenti Rips Lions WR Jameson Williams: He's Not Bright

On Sunday Night Football, with the eyes of the NFL world looking on, Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams provided his team one of their most explosive plays on offense, hauling in a reception and scoring, outrunning Eagles defensive back Adoree Jackson to the end zone.

However, instead of his play on the bright stage, where he finished with 97 yards from scrimmage, the main topic of discussion for Williams has been his penalty immediately after the touchdown.

The former Lions’ first-round selection ran to the goalpost and jumped to embrace it with his arms and legs, which has been done before and been penalized, notably with former Steelers receiver Antonio Brown.

Mike Valenti, the host of the "Mike Valenti Show with Rico" on 97.1 The Ticket, was critical of Williams on Monday, and received considerable backlash. The host was brutal, ripping the receiver to shreds verbally.

“Jamo is an idiot,” Valenti stated in his viral clip. “Grow up.”

Valenti was sarcastically called a hater by co-host Rico Beard, and the former instantly rejected the notion.

“I’m not being a hater,” Valenti responded. “You can do anything you want in the endzone, short of produce a baby in the grass, don’t touch the goalposts. It’s the one no-no. Don’t go ‘Oh, the rule is stupid!’ So is speeding. But we have to abide.”

Beard expanded on Valenti’s metaphor, before taking some exception to Williams’ reaction to the penalty. Beard then expanded on his frustrations with how Williams acted, and asked what the end goal of that celebration was.

“You blow by a cop going 65, and he has to do his job,” Beard noted. “And then afterwards, you kinda got that look like ‘yeah, you know,’ laughing and giggling. Like, no, dude, you cost us a point that we may need in this game. You never had the lead because of that. Maybe, at 7-6, you force Philly into a different mindset. But now, it’s tied 6-6. You wanted all the smoke, you wanted all the attention. Congratulations, Jamo, did you get what you seek? At that point, what are you? An Instagram model? What were you doing? You cost your team a point, a valuable point that they needed. Come on, man, you got to be better than that.”

Valenti indicated he was not a fan of a player that hurt the team due to his poor decision-making.

“He’s just not bright,” Valenti expressed, “Flow chart. Not bright, you can just say it. Not everybody’s meant to build rockets, okay? He’s not a smart guy. It is what it is, there’s a behavioral pattern, and it sucks, because that very play is every reason why I wanted his role increased, but it is also the part where I go ‘damn it, you hurt us.’ This was not some 38-35 Big 12 shootout. You knew early on how this game was going to go.”

On Tuesday, after some backlash, the 97.1 host was back to defend his words and expand on his comments. After talking about the initial backlash, he posed a question to his listeners and Detroit sports fans, speaking on the differences in treatment that Williams gets compared to Tigers’ ace pitcher Tarik Skubal and Pistons’ star Cade Cunningham. Valenti dove into an objective view of what the play did to hurt the Lions’ hopes, and what could have been different in the Sunday Night Football game.

“I want to ask a question to people: ‘why do you react this way, with this player?’ Jamo has been afforded a protected status that Cade Cunningham doesn’t have, Tarik Skubal doesn’t have… Meanwhile, Jamo, these are facts, that I am about to give you, factually. He made a great play. Facts. He had a stupid celebration. Fact. He drew a totally legitimate penalty. Fact. That penalty moved the extra point from a 33-yarder to a 48-yarder in 30-to-40 mile an hour winds. Fact. This penalty made that extra point more difficult. Fact. That extra point being missed matters, game script. Because when you’re up 7-6, and the Eagles score to go up, they’re sitting on 12, maybe they go for two, to get to 14-7. If you get that stop (on the two-point attempt), maybe field goals look different,” Valenti pointed out.

Valenti then ended his analysis to re-iterate his most inflammatory comment, his questions on Williams’ intelligence. The radio host also addressed the criticism of the show, and re-posed his question about Williams’ special treatment.

“It’s an idiotic penalty, and I am sorry, I just do not think Jamo is that bright of a guy,” Valenti said. “Made a ton of bad decisions, he continues to make bad decisions, and he continues to do the whole late-night thing, and it’s like ‘okay, no big deal, I just thought it was very simple.’ The reaction is ‘these two again, it didn’t cost us anything, you’re haters,’” Valenti said of the criticism to his takes on the Alabama product. “By the way, the segment and Youtube video, I said that I want his role to be bigger, that that play is everything right about Jamo and wrong all in one? What is it about this player and any commentary of him that triggers you?”

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