Stephen A. Smith calls for discipline of Texas A&M officer who bumped South Carolina receiver Nyck Harbor

One of the more high-profile moments from a South Carolina and Texas A&M game that included a comeback for the ages was an interaction between Gamecocks receiver Nyck Harbor and a member of the Texas A&M law enforcement staff working the game. The law enforcement officer gave Harbor a forcible shove while passing by him in one of the tunnels following a long touchdown.

Immediately the clip of the interaction went viral. It went so viral so fast that Texas A&M removed the officer from his game-day duties during the game itself.

ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith thinks more should be coming. That can’t be the only punishment doled out.

“That’s an automatic suspension. The man shouldn’t be allowed to work the game again,” Smith said in a short video recorded for Twitter. “What you doing messing with a player like that for? Wasn’t somebody in street clothes that you didn’t know was a player. You knew exactly who it was. You knew it was a player for South Carolina. You knew that and you did it anyway.”

My thoughts on the police officer interaction in South Carolina vs Texas A&M game pic.twitter.com/nd7VVb7Sqc

— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) November 16, 2025

The move by the officer came right as South Carolina was building up a huge lead in the contest. Nyck Harbor was a big part of it, going for an 80-yard touchdown score.

For Smith, the video of the interaction with Harbor is plenty enough to warrant not only action, but decisive action. There wasn’t much wiggle room for the ESPN personality.

“This is a no-brainer to me,” Smith said. “Nyck Harbor from South Carolina catches a pass, scampers down the field for a damned long touchdown run, runs into the tunnel because he’s holding his hamstring. And then his teammates’ coming to help him because they know that something must be wrong because he kept going in there and he’s holding his hamstring.

“He comes back out, you can see the officer at the stadium walk in between two players and literally bumps into both of them and flexes his arms out before turning around and telling them to get on out of here and all of this other stuff. We saw it, it’s clear as day.”

According to the Texas A&M police account on Twitter, the officer’s shift was cut short: “We are aware of the incident in the NE tunnel involving a DPS trooper,” Texas A&M Police posted. “He has been relieved of his game day assignment.”

Will further action be warranted? That remains to be seen, but it was an ugly incident on Saturday.

“There’s nothing to think about here, there’s no argument, there’s no excuse on the part of the officer,” Smith said. “He shouldn’t even be allowed to cover the games anymore and definitely should be suspended.”