Former ESPN host Dan Le Batard scorched current ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith saying that he “hates” what he and Skip Bayless have done to “sports television.”
Smith and Bayless were once the two co-hosts of the popular ESPN daytime talk show “First Take” and often carried on conversations at very high decibels.
Le Batard was especially bold because he gave Smith the business during his visit to “South Beach Sessions” podcast last week, telling him to his face: “I hate what you two have done to sports television.”
Le Batard infers that Smith and Bayless have turned daytime sports talk shows into unadulterated scream-fests and deliberately trigger fans with hot-takes instead of calmly debating the issues as their counterparts do.
Dan Le Batard tells Stephen A. that he HATES what he and @SkipBayless have done to sports television.
"I would say who the hell are you to say me and him, what about YOU?!”
– @stephenasmith #SouthBeachSessions🌴📺 https://t.co/QtIoWyeMLd
🎙️ https://t.co/k0FsLAvDnw pic.twitter.com/YrfPp8iQzx— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) March 24, 2023
Smith was quite predictably offended and fired back at his former colleague.
“You can say that all you want to,” Smith began. “I would say, ‘Who the hell are you to sit up there and say me and him.’ What about you? Where the hell were you? Living under a rock? Teaching at Miami U? You were part of it, too! You ain’t innocent!”
Later on in the day, Smith, 56, fired up his Twitter account to elaborate on why he took umbrage with Le Batard’s sentiments.
“Obnoxious, loud, demonstrative, bombastic, not good for television”…I’ve been called it all. Hell, ESPN fired me for it!
But I don’t break journalistic tenets, I don’t violate trust, I don’t backstab, none of that. I’m real. pic.twitter.com/o7kPNBsJm4
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) March 27, 2023
Smith was still steaming, adding that he is not the only one who raises his voice while debating sports issues of the day.
What were the shows before Skip Bayless brought me on First Take in 2012 doing?
Whispering? Mumbling??? pic.twitter.com/txAJpBB8ol
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) March 27, 2023
Le Batard informed his Instagram followers that he incited Smith’s fanbase who flooded his timeline with hateful rhetoric.
“I told Stephen A. Smith that I hated what he and Skip Bayless had done to sports television and the reaction was hostile and swift on Elon Musk’s kind, gentle community app,” Le Batard explained. “People say that I’m a fat, ugly, hypocritical, jealous jerk, a–hole, moron, idiot. And I’d just like to defend myself against that. I’m not jealous.”
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqMPsH3j4SW/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=e21b34a7-9b5d-4f34-8be2-29b1b0268a7e
There were plenty of fans who share Le Batard’s sentiments.
“Stephen A and Skip Bayless are unwatchable,” one follower surmised.
Another person opined, “I do have to credit Dan for having the b—s to actually say that to SAS [Stephen A. Smith] and credit to SAS for not backing down. I love stuff like this.”
A third person offered: “Dan’s absolutely right. On my off days, I used to watch ESPN most of the day, now it’s mostly garbage. Especially ‘First Take,’ I can’t even watch five minutes of that.”
