Stephen A. Smith gets a lot of blame for the state of American sports media, especially in terms of its volume.
While most of us blame him from afar, Dan Le Batard did it to his face in March when he told Smith “I hate what you two have done to sports television,” including Fox’s Skip Bayless in the critique. The former ESPNer explained that he hated how Smith and Bayless spawned an industry of imitators who believe every sports headline has to be turned into an argument, regardless of what their true opinions might be.
Smith, naturally, disagreed with that sentiment, later saying Le Batard “was wrong when he came at me.”
When Smith appeared on future ESPNer Pat McAfee’s show on Tuesday, the new guy kissed the ring of the First Take host, praising what he’s accomplished in the industry in an aside from their conversation about the Denver Nuggets.
“You’ve done a lot of great things for sports media. You need to know that,” McAfee said. “There’s a couple things, you know, you’re so damn good at what you do that now everybody’s trying to be you. Not everybody, but a lot of people are trying to be you. And they’re not. That sucks. Not your fault though. We have to deal with it, but not your fault.”
Smith responded by sharing his appreciation for the compliment and took a cheeky dig at Le Batard while doing so.
“I appreciate you not being Dan Le Batard and trying to blame me for that,” responded Smith. “Thank you very much.”
McAfee added that while it would be easy to blame Smith and Bayless for the debate-heavy nature of cable sports coverage, it would not be accurate, though he did make a point of noting that “we have to deal with it” a second time.
Le Batard’s initial criticism noted that people without journalism backgrounds have risen to the forefront of the sports media world thanks to Smith’s and Bayless’s style, which matches McAfee’s background.
It sounds like McAfee is bristling a little bit at criticism that his rise to prominence is a direct result of Smith’s success. Whether that’s true or not, ESPN is clearly a big fan of both of them and willing to shell out a lot of money to let them do their things.
