Stephen A. Smith tears Yankees to shreds over facial-hair rule change

One of the biggest sporting franchises in America has changed a rule that has stood for more than half a century in a shock move.

You’ll always know when Stephen A. Smith is heated.

On Friday, the ESPN personality allowed his anger to boil over while reacting to the Yankees’ decision to hold a lengthy press conference to discuss their new facial hair policy, the NY Post reports.

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The Yankees announced Friday that, at last, they updated their longstanding facial hair policy.

“After great consideration, we will be amending our expectations to allow our players and uniformed personnel to have well-groomed beards moving forward,” owner Hal Steinbrenner said in a statement on Friday.

“It is the appropriate time to move beyond the familiar comfort of our former policy.”

Although Smith is an unapologetic Yankee fan, he wasn’t particularly upset about the policy change itself.

Instead, he was annoyed about the club dedicating an entire 20 minutes of press time to the subject.

“A 20-minute press conference over facial hair? I mean, what a disgrace,” Smith exclaimed on ESPN.

Facial hair is back for the Yankees. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)

“I couldn’t believe it,” he continued. “I’m a Yankee fan, you know I’m a diehard Yankee fan. I’m trying to keep my cool. You understand what I’m saying? But I mean, damn. You ain’t won a World Series title since 2009. You ain’t been to one since then until last year—you got romped by the Dodgers.

“And facial hair is a reason there was a press conference?”

The Yankees did just make the World Series last season but haven’t hung a banner since their championship in 2009.

And after losing Juan Soto to the cross-town rival Mets, fans like Smith are losing patience with the organisation’s long-running World Series drought, which is getting closer to 20 years.

Devin Williams kept his stumble for his team photo. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

While the decision was met with some shock within the clubhouse, plans differed about whether players and staff would immediately start growing a beard.

The consensus was that it was the right decision — both in the team granting its players some room to be themselves and also in the Yankees’ own self-interest in landing the best talent.

“It’s hard for guys to go out there and you expect them to be their best when you don’t feel like you’re in your own skin,” said Marcus Stroman, who said the old facial hair policy was “very talked about” around the league. “I think it’s a great thing that needed to happen for that factor. When we go out on the field, you want to make sure we have the utmost confidence.”

This article originally appeared on the NY Post and was reproduced with permission.

Originally published as Stephen A. Smith tears Yankees to shreds over facial-hair rule change