Stephen A. Smith has been with ESPN for much of his nearly-30 year media career, and has been at the forefront of the network’s hit debate show First Take since 2012, when he re-joined the network as the main counterpart to Skip Bayless. Now, he’s on the shortlist of highest paid and most entrenched personalities in all of sports media.
He’s been at the center of more than a few famous moments in the last decade on the show. It may not be overly surprising that his favorite moment involving him needling the Dallas Cowboys.
Back in 2018, the show went to Dallas ahead of a Monday Night Football game between the Cowboys and the Tennessee Titans. Cowboys legend Michael Irvin appeared on the show, and he and Stephen A. got into an argument so heated that Irvin had to be toweled off in the middle of the live show.
Throw in hundreds of Cowboys fans cheering on Irvin and booing Stephen A. Smith, and you had what seemed like a WWE-promo-level atmosphere. No one likes playing the heel better than Smith.
Smith appeared on the Rich Eisen Show today, and said that it was his favorite First Take moment ever. “It was the greatest time I’ve ever had in the history of First Take, without question.”
“It was the greatest time I’ve ever had in the history of @FirstTake.”
–@stephenasmith knows the #DallasCowboys are the TV gift that always delivers the gold in the end:@michaelirvin88 pic.twitter.com/qklStjWJM8
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) April 14, 2021
“I’m loving it a.) because it’s great television, b.) because I love having him on the show because he’s my buddy and I love him like a brother, but c.) I know the inevitable. They’re going to fold.
Stephen A. took particular enjoyment in the fact that he predicted that the Cowboys would lose that night against the Tennessee Titans. Sure enough, they did, falling 28-14 at home.
“They just never let me down,” he told Eisen. “I confess…I kinda use Michael Irvin to sucker the Cowboys fans into getting hyped and excited, knowing the crash is coming. It’s just a beautiful thing, nothing pleases me more than to see him and the rest of the Cowboy faithful miserable.”
Say what you will about the man, but he plays his part extremely well.
The post Stephen A. Smith Names His Favorite Moment On ‘First Take’ appeared first on The Spun.
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