Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe don’t want to hear “First Take” come from two ESPN colleagues.
Smith and Sharpe addressed comments made by Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler during the College Football Playoff broadcast on Monday’s edition of the popular sports talk show.
And while Smith was more polished with his response, Sharpe let it be known that he doesn’t care how many ESPN bosses he has to face if he hears shots fired at “First Take” again.
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Sportscaster Stephen A. Smith appears on a podcast. (PBD Podcast)
“I’m going to be a good teammate,” Sharpe told Smith. “I’m going to let it slide. They’re all at ESPN. Because if you hadn’t taken the route you did, I would have turned their a–es on. If we’re going to be on the same team, if we’re going to work for the same network, don’t do it.” that.
“Kirk, Chris Fowler, I promise you that if you ever bring up any platform that I’m speaking on again, ‘I wonder what they’re saying as negativity,’ I promise you that ESPN doesn’t have enough bosses to keep me away from what I’m going to say. Don’t play with me.”
Herbstreit and Fowler’s comments were about Ohio State Buckeyes head football coach Ryan Day, where Smith accused them of misquoting him about calling for the coach to be fired.
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“Enough,” Smith told the camera during his speech on the matter. “‘First Take has to get him fired,’ that’s not true. I did! Not ‘First Take’. That was me, Stephen A. Don’t misquote me. What I said was, ‘This guy, Ryan Day , if he doesn’t get a national championship, he should leave even with a 66-10 record. I didn’t stutter one bit, I’m not stuttering now.”
Herbstreit and Fowler were on the call for the Buckeyes to defeat the Tennessee Volunteers to advance to the next round of the playoffs.
As Day led the team to a dominant victory, Herbstreit brought out the “lunatic fringe” he feels exists at Ohio State, which attacked Day after losing for the fourth consecutive year to Michigan in their rivalry game.
Kirk Herbstreit throws the ball with fans on the set of ESPN’s College Game Day at the University of Texas before the Longhorns’ game against the Georgia Bulldogs in Austin on Oct. 19, 2024. (Sara Diggins/American-Statesman/USA TodayNetwork via Imagn Images)
Herbstreit then moved the conversation to “First Take.”
“‘First Take’ tried to fire him,” Herbstreit was heard saying. “They thought it was over. So I’ll be excited to see what they’ll talk about on Monday after this performance. They left him out. They’re trying to find replacements. But here he is. He still has his hat on.” . “He’s still training.”
At the time, Herbstreit’s comments were interesting, to say the least, considering he was talking about a show within his own network.
Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe were offended that their ESPN colleagues made comments about something they said on “First Take.” (IMAGE)
But, as they have done in the past with others who have criticized them, Smith and Sharpe responded quickly, even if it meant alerting their own colleagues.
