Tag: Stephen A. Smith

Former Bucs QB Tom Brady speaks on state of NFL

Brady had a lot to say about “mediocrity” in today’s NFL and how current rule changes are too harsh on defensive players.

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady appeared on the Stephen A. Smith show on Monday, and he had a lot to say on the state of the game and the NFL.

The former Bucs quarterback was asked about how he sees the NFL now, and he had a very curt answer about it.

“I think there’s a lot of mediocrity in today’s NFL,” Brady said. “I don’t see the excellence that I saw in the past. I think the coaching isn’t as good as it was, I don’t think the development of young players is as good as it was.”

Brady attributed this mostly to how the rules in the NFL have evolved. He said that rules today are too harsh on defensive players and that offensive players have a responsibility to protect themselves, saying that players like Ray Lewis and Ronnie Lott wouldn’t have been able to play in today’s game.

“The rules have allowed a lot of bad habits to get into the actual performance of the game… you hear coaches complaining about their own player being tackled, and not necessarily, why don’t they talk to their player about how to protect themself? We used to work on the fundamentals of those things all the time.”

Brady himself was recently a part of the modern game, ending his career in Tampa Bay in 2022. In his three seasons with the Bucs, Brady threw for 16,655 yards, 123 touchdowns, 38 interceptions with a 65.8% completion percentage. He won his last Super Bowl with the Bucs in 2020, the second in the team’s franchise history.

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Stephen A. Smith: Brian Daboll could (eventually) come back to the Bills

That’s one idea:

For now, it’s Joe Brady’s world.

The Bills fired Ken Dorsey after a 24-22 loss to the Broncos in Week 10. From there, Joe Brady, previously the team’s quarterbacks coach, was named the interim offensive coordinator.

Perhaps Brady turns things around and keeps the job for the long haul.

If not, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith has an idea: Go back to the past.

At first, Smith joked about the Bills rehiring Brian Daboll, who left to become the head coach of the Giants in 2022… then… he sounded pretty serious. Smith sounds like he thinks it could be possible to get Daboll to head back to the Bills.

Check out Smith’s idea in the First Take clip below:

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Stephen A. Smith wants to see Deion Sanders take the Texas A&M job

Stephen A. Smith wants to see Deion Sanders take the vacant Texas A&M head coaching job

As soon as Texas A&M fired head football coach Jimbo Fisher on Sunday, a flurry of names popped up as potential candidates. Some of them include Kliff Kingsbury, Mike Elko, Dan Lanning and plenty of others.

During Monday’s edition of “Get Up,” ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith advocated for Colorado head coach Deion Sanders to take the vacant Texas A&M job:

“Deion Sanders in the SEC with that vault that they have available to them, with them hogs that he could recruit? Because he doesn’t have them at Colorado, and he ain’t going to get them. I don’t think they’ll do it. Texas A&M, Prime Time Deion Sanders in the SEC? That needs to happen.”

It would be a shocking turn of events as Coach Prime has been in Boulder for less than one year, but nobody really thought much of Smith’s comments on social media. With Shedeur Sanders, Shilo Sanders and Travis Hunter all likely staying in Boulder for another season, it wouldn’t make much sense for Coach Prime to leave now.

Coach Prime has stated time and time again that he is happy at Colorado, although the recent losing skid has certainly been difficult.

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Fans were confused when Stephen A. Smith called for Deion Sanders to be Texas A&M’s new coach

Sanders is 4-6 in his first season at Colorado.

There are always plenty of surprises in the college football coaching carousel, but Stephen A. Smith lobbied for the biggest of them all on Monday.

Texas A&M made the expensive decision to fire head coach Jimbo Fisher over the weekend, and names are already floating around for a potential replacement in College Station.

If Smith had his way, though, the choice would be easy: Deion Sanders.

Smith said on Monday’s edition of Get Up that Deion to the SEC “needs” to happen and that he wanted Texas A&M to hire Sanders.

Now, Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes were *the* story of the season’s first few weeks. Coach Prime won the first three games after completely overhauling a 1-11 team’s roster. But Colorado has fallen back down to Earth a bit with a 1-6 record since that start (and losers of its past four games). While Sanders considerably improved Colorado compared to last season, the team would need to upset Washington State and Utah on the road to make a bowl game.

Sanders could be well on his way to a bigger job in college football, but the timing right now just doesn’t seem ideal. After all, if Sanders were to hypothetically take the Texas A&M job (or any other job), it would be difficult for Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter to come along after already using a transfer.

Still, Smith’s suggestion certainly caught the attention of college football fans.

Stephen A. Smith disses Lakers over Anthony Davis’ poor game vs. Nuggets

After Anthony Davis had a poor second half on Tuesday, Stephen A. Smith is convinced it’s a sign of impending doom for the Lakers.

The Los Angeles Lakers lost their opening night matchup versus the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday, 119-107, and a natural knee-jerk reaction would be to say they have the same deficiencies they had last spring.

After multiple midseason trades, they became a very good team, but the Nuggets beat them on the boards and in transition when they swept L.A. in the Western Conference finals.

As far as Tuesday’s game, many are pointing the finger once again at Anthony Davis. After a strong first half, he missed all six of his shots in the second half and didn’t score after halftime. He certainly deserves some of the blame.

But ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith took things one step further and said Davis’ poor close to the game is why he believes the Lakers will not win the NBA championship this season (h/t Lakers Daily).

“Atrocious, very concerning,” he said of Davis’ scoreless second half. “Ladies and gentlemen, you just saw the reason why the Los Angeles Lakers ain’t gon’ win no championship this year. … I’m so ticked off at Anthony Davis right now. It’s an embarrassment what happened with him yesterday. We gotta call it like we see it, OK? When this brother brings his A game, he’s one of the top seven players on the planet Earth. Charles Barkley calls him Street Clothes. I said, ‘No, I call him Six Flags.’ He’s a roller coaster. He’s up and down. You never know what you gon’ get. He’ll drop 40 one game. He’ll drop 11 the next like he did between Games 1 and 2 of the postseason last year. I believe it was against Denver. You turn around, you got 17 points in the first half, OK? In the second half, let’s look at the numbers. Second half, 18 minutes, zero points.”

Davis looked very good during preseason play, and there was hype and even excitement that he had apparently improved his outside shooting. He hit 1-of-2 from 3-point range on Tuesday, but his overall aggressiveness evaporated after halftime.

It is hyperbole to say Davis is wildly inconsistent, as Smith suggested when he called him “Six Flags.” But Davis does need to be more consistent, especially in big games. Some of that falls on his teammates and coaching staff to run the offense through him more often, especially when his aggressiveness is waning.

Stephen A. Smith, Micah Parsons ripped Bart Scott for tasteless comment about Trevon Diggs

This is a bad look for Bart Scott.

NFL player turned broadcaster Bart Scott is in hot water after making an incredibly tasteless comment about Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs, who tore his ACL in practice Thursday and is now out for the season.

And ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith and Cowboys All-Pro linebacker Micah Parsons immediately condemned his words.

Injuries are part of sports and often cause reverberations throughout an organization. Truthfully, they’re awful for everyone involved, including the impacted player.

Sadly, the ripple effect they have must be discussed, however, it’s always best to do that with care. You can be honest without being insensitive.

Yet, Bart Scott didn’t get that memo. In speaking about Trevon Diggs’s season-ending injury, Scott delivered some blistering remarks that caused everyone in the room to react.

For reasons only known to Scott, he improperly used a popular phrase by Smith: “Just wait. Something bad always happens.”

“No, don’t start that, don’t start that,” Ryan Clark quickly responded.

Smith echoed Clark’s sentiment and quickly followed up by saying, “I wouldn’t do that right now, in all seriousness.” He made it clear that this was not a joke.

Words travel fast, and his comments started trending on social media, catching the eye of Parsons. Parsons often speaks his mind, and today was no different.

He immediately defended Diggs and clapped back at Scott. Parsons was rightfully unhappy, saying he shouldn’t be joking about a man trying to feed his family and build a legacy.

Also, this isn’t the first time Parsons has called out Scott for his comments. They had a dispute in January over Scott’s thoughts on Damar Hamlin’s injury that involved Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins.

To be unequivocally clear, this is a bad look. Period. It shouldn’t have been said. Diggs is a human being with emotions and feelings.

Be better, Bart. Be better.

Update: Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs also criticized Scott’s comments.

Update again: Scott tagged Parsons in his response, and Parsons wasn’t entertaining it.

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Stephen A. Smith got roasted for his terrible first pitch by so many big names (and his own sister)

Celebrities and legendary athletes roasted him SO HARD.

Stephen A. Smith talked a lot of game about his first pitch before the New York Yankees’ game on Thursday night, and he didn’t disappoint.

And by that, I mean he didn’t disappoint all of us. Because he bounced the pitch to home plate, got booed and then spent much of Friday morning getting roasted by so many big names (and his own sister!) during First Take.

Yes, his sister Carmen was in on the roasting. But so was — in no particular order — Steve Harvey, Dan Orlovsky, Derek Jeter, Jay Z … you get the idea. It’s so, so funny.

Enjoy:

Stephen A. Smith embarrassingly one-hopped a Yankees first pitch he was so confident about

He had the look of a man who knows he’s about to get roasted.

Don’t let him fool you: Stephen A. Smith said he’d do this a lot better.

During Thursday’s episode of First Take, the ESPN personality professed that he’d throw a great first pitch before the New York Yankees’ game against the Toronto Blue Jays. He even said his goal was to throw a better first pitch than former President Barack Obama.

To put it lightly, it did not go according to plan. Not even close.

Smith strolled up to the mound confidently, tossing the ball in the air as if he didn’t have a care in the world. But when he actually released his pitch, it one-hopped right in front of home plate. Predictably, he hung his head in disappointment.

After seeing the reaction on Twitter, Smith would jokingly clarify that he was trying for a change-up:

Oof. Better luck next time, pal.

Bears safety Jaquan Brisker raised eyebrows by liking a harsh Stephen A. Smith rant

Is Jaquan Brisker just keeping receipts or does he agree with the rant?

The 2023 Chicago Bears just can’t help themselves, can they?

In the last few days alone, we’ve seen a Justin Fields “coaching” comment controversy, the general manager saying the team isn’t “panicking” in Week 3, the defensive coordinator resign, and even D.J. Moore admitting the team’s offense isn’t using him properly while mic’d-up. All of this is stacked on top of a disappointing 0-2 start where the Bears have resembled the worst team in professional football.

On Thursday, safety Jaquan Brisker may have fanned the Bears’ raging flames with some strange social media activity. The second-year player “liked” a post on Twitter that featured a Stephen A. Smith quote calling the Chicago organization “trash.” Note: This is the same Brisker who practically begged Bears fans not to boo the team after another loss to the hated Green Bay Packers.

I doubt we’ll ever know Brisker’s intent here — does he agree with Smith, or is he just using it as motivation? — but he had to know that people would see what he liked on a public platform.

The last thing the Bears could afford right now is more dysfunction.

Brisker appears to be one of the team’s leaders, but even seemingly tiny incidents like this will create more unnecessary questions for a group trying to pull itself out of a tailspin.

UPDATE: According to Nicholas Moreano of CHGO, Brisker clarified his Twitter like by saying he was indeed using the Stephen A. Smith quote as motivation:

MLB fans ripped Stephen A. Smith on his ridiculous take that Shohei Ohtani isn’t worth $500M

Stephen A. Smith is very off on this MLB take about Shohei Ohtani’s pending free agency windfall.

ESPN’s sports debate captain Stephen A. Smith is never one to shy away from a hot take, but his rant against MLB superstar Shohei Ohtani getting paid feels like it’s pushing it by even his own standards.

On a new edition of First Take, Smith argued that no MLB team should pay Ohtani a $500 million contract for a litany of reasons.

While Smith brings up a fair point about Ohtani’s injury that could sideline him from pitching until 2025, he also brings in a bunch of silly reasons for not giving the MLB’s best player a payday.

Those include the Angels being bad with Ohtani there, other teams are good that haven’t paid a superstar like Ohtani such a large salary, changing baseball rules and that people didn’t show up to Angels games because they were bad.

Wh— what?

While Smith as an MLB general manager might not give Ohtani a half a billion dollars, there will be no shortage of teams who will do what is necessary to get one of the best baseball players of all time on their roster.

While it’s fine to not have clarity on Ohtani’s future health, trying to argue that he’s not worth the biggest salary in baseball doesn’t really work past this injury. If he could actually get on a good team, Ohtani’s electric play even as a hitter could boost them to immediate World Series contenders.

Once he gets back to pitching? He’d be worth every single penny you’d pay him and more.