How and why ESPN shout-master Stephen A. Smith ended up sermonizing to the Syracuse football team doesn’t really matter. Whether he was invited to meet the team or just happened to stumble into a room with a bunch of football players in it, something like this was always going to be the result:
A fun game to play with this bar fight of a First Take segment is to pause it at any point during its seven-minute runtime and giggle to yourself at the marvelous facial expressions of hosts Stephen A. Smith, Will Cain, and Max Kellerman. The three dudes are never not incredulous, aghast, or enraged, spewing fire and…
I suppose the logical apotheosis of the media tour that LaVar Ball, patron saint of loud sports dads, has embarked upon over the past month is an appearance on ESPN’s preeminent shouting match, First Take. This morning, Ball joined the program to discuss his series of outlandish public proclamations—that his son Lonzo…
Amid huge ratings declines, ESPN execs have decided to move First Take from ESPN2 to ESPN beginning in 2017, reports John Ourand. It will still occupy its 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. ET time slot, meaning the 10:00 a.m. SportsCenter hosted by Hannah Storm and the 11:00 a.m. SportsCenter hosted by David Lloyd and Cari…
ESPN’s flagship shoutfest, First Take, has long and rightly been reviled for degrading everyone and everything it touches. Until co-host Skip Bayless departed earlier this year, that didn’t seem to matter at all to its loyal core audience, which happily tuned in each day no matter how repulsive or just plain stupid…
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ESPN has officially announced that Max Kellerman will be Skip Bayless’s replacement on First Take, confirming weeks of reports that he was the leading contender for the job of sitting stone-faced while Stephen A. Smith yells. Kellerman will give up his radio show and duties on SportsNation to take the position.
Stephen A. Smith has weighed in on Ayesha Curry’s thoughts on the NBA being rigged. The First Take goon called her classless and said she shouldn’t bring attention to herself.
Today’s episode of First Take began with Skip Bayless addressing the news that he’ll be leaving ESPN after the NBA Finals. Bayless, Molly Qerim, and Stephen A. Smith took a couple of minutes to reminisce about all the stupid opinions generated by the two.
Stephen A. Smith, ESPN’s professional unintelligible empanada truck, tried to drop exclusive information about Kevin Durant’s free agency last week. Durant scoffed, saying that he, his family, and his friends don’t talk to Smith. Smith had a rebuttal to that rebuttal, touting his supposed insider sources and ending…
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith responded to criticism of his public support for Floyd Mayweather and his recent role as a Mayweather hype man on today’s First Take, claiming everyone bears responsibility for the serial woman-beater’s success and ability to become wealthy through boxing because “they could never be who they…
Awful Announcing reports (via SportsGrid) on a disturbing First Take segment from earlier this month that escaped our notice, where Stephen A. Smith doubles down on his baseless defense of Floyd Mayweather, and belittles the female host of First Take, Cari Champion, in the process.
Listen. First Take is a trashy, cynical show that exists so that Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless, two of the widest talking sphincters in sports punditry, can take turns spouting fake and bad shit to the masses. Most of the time, it's so disingenuous that it's depressing, but sometimes, one of these two fellas comes…
Yesterday, the National Organization for Women released a statement calling for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's resignation. "The NFL has lost its way. It doesn't have a Ray Rice problem; it has a violence against women problem," the statement read.
Shannon Sharpe was a guest co-host on this morning's episode of First Take and he had some weird things to say about Josh Gordon's year-long suspension from the NFL.
The statement from ESPN, which very specifically does not mention the word "suspension":
This morning's Very Special Edition of First Take began with a scripted and seemingly pre-recorded apology from panelist Stephen A. Smith regarding the very dumb things he said about domestic violence last week. It was ... unconvincing.
Earlier today, ESPN's Stephen A. Smith went on television and suggested that women should make sure not to provoke men into beating them. This was not well-received, so he took to Twitter and basically repeated what he'd initially said. This went poorly. So, he tried to issue something resembling an apology—in just…
This is exactly what First Take was designed to do. That's not hyperbole. First Take's reason for existence is to reduce every subject, from the incredibly complex to the totally uncontroversial, down to a binary issue that can be debated. Is Tim Tebow a good quarterback? Is LeBron clutch? Should Ray Rice have knocked…
