ESPN star Stephen A. Smith has made a name for himself by spouting the hottest takes, bringing a unique blend of performative anger and righteous frustration to the sports broadcast game that arguably revolutionized the genre. I did. So I was shocked to hear him complain that he had to “polish” because he was black.
Appearing on Barstool Sports' “Bussin' With The Boys” podcast, Smith compared himself to new colleague Pat McAfee.
“I'm an outlier in this regard,” Smith told Barstool magazine's Taylor Lewan. “I love Pat McAfee. Love him to death, love him to death. I love his swag. I love that he's an honest big brother. He doesn't care. tells me exactly where he stands. That's my type and it works for me. Now is he as politically sophisticated as me? No. Because he has no desire to be number one. And secondly, to be honest, he's white and I'm black. It didn't have to be that way. Otherwise. It didn’t happen.”
By the way, with all due respect to Stephen A., I think he's really great at what he does, but this is a far-fetched statement. Stephen A. Smith? The same guy who revealed his worst day of the week to be horny? Is this guy sophisticated? That's ridiculous.
https://t.co/WhzRfcXQUE pic.twitter.com/B7DDGhIlBe
— Stephen A. Smith (@stephenasmith) November 9, 2023
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and confirm that this clip is from a November episode of his personal podcast, which is not affiliated with ESPN and is not aired on ESPN's airwaves. . But here he said in a 2019 episode of ESPN's Stephen A. Smith Show that he only gets excited for “a few hours of the day, yes, but not all day.” ing. (Related: “What the hell happened?”: Stephen A. Smith goes on a very grounded rant about Eric Adams’ Immigration Pilot Program)
It's funny that Corey let Stephen A talk to him about his horniness. pic.twitter.com/n9988JC5V1
— Big Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) March 12, 2019
And there's a hilarious clip in which Stephen A. admits he works for a Disney company but tells Snoop Dogg he “eats his ass.”
“Always, always butt. That's true,” Smith said in response to Snoop's “butt or boobs?” question. “I'm related to Walt Disney, but damn, everyone knows I'm a bottom feeder.”
Give Snoop the Pulitzer Prize for this investigative reporting on Stephen A. Smith pic.twitter.com/z3caaxsJV8
— Mixtape (@MickstapeShow) June 13, 2018
If Stephen A. really has to be more sophisticated than McAfee, that has nothing to do with skin color. It's all about platform and leverage. Pat McAfee was born on the internet. He built a brand on being able to say whatever he wanted. He leveraged that brand to strike a friendly deal with ESPN and McAfee, allowing the network to simulcast his show while he streamed it live to his YouTube.
Smith, on the other hand, is at the mercy of his employer. Born into the linear world of cable television, Stephen A. emerged in the early 2000s and appeared on various of his ESPN shows. Yes, of course you have to work harder on cable TV than on the Internet. I don't know what that has to do with race. (Related: Legendary Analyst Makes Easily Disprovable Claims About Black Coaches in the NFL)
But even with that in mind, ESPN gave him a massive severance grant and kept him employed despite the fact that he's said some really no money shit in the past.
In 2014, following the Los Angeles Times domestic violence scandal with Ray Rice, ESPN suspended him for a week. report.he was suggested Women “should” [their] contribute to confirming that [violence] That's not going to happen,” Business Insider reports. However, he reportedly returned to the airwaves the following week and continued to lead the flagship show.
There's the backlash he received in 2015 joke The reason the German women's national soccer team allowed a penalty goal at the World Cup is that “Maybe they didn't want to mess up their hair.'' (Funny joke, by the way.)
Not only do I argue that Stephen A. wasn't held to a higher standard just because he was black, but if McAfee said something like that, he would be fired on the spot. I even want to say that I am deaf.
Smith has arguably built his entire career on the premise that he's not your average polished sportscaster. Numerous viral clips of his funny phrases and wild antics helped propel him to stardom.his Wikipedia The page literally says, “He is known for his provocative analysis and passionate statements.” So the idea that he is sophisticated? In the words of a great man…Asinine, 10, 11, 12”
