Stephen A Smith needs flash to care about college football. We already knew that.
So on Thursday’s First Take as Smith loaded up a take railing against Bill Belichick for taking the North Carolina head football coach job, his cohost Molly Qerim called out that bias then and there.
“True football fans, this is going to be appointment viewing to see what Bill Belichick does,” Qerim said. “Stephen A. is all about box office. He wants every free agent to go to the Lakers, he hates small markets, it’s just not sexy enough for him.”
Smith, unsurprisingly, took issue with the pushback.
“Molly completely misrepresents me, that’s alright,” he said.
Qerim knows her First Take partner well enough to know when she’s onto something, so she didn’t back down.
“Let me finish my point,” she interjected. “For you it’s always box office. You’re a New Yorker that’s an Alabama fan, it’s just not sexy enough for you. But you’re seeing it through your lens, and not through all football fans’ [lens]. I know you don’t care about my opinion, but other people [do].”
To prove her point, Qerim asked Smith about Colorado, a program that like many in national sports media, Smith took a liking to after Deion Sanders took it over last year. Qerim questioned how much Smith cared about the Buffaloes before Sanders took over, compared with the attention he pays it now.
The only way Smith managed to sideswipe the question was by fixating on scheduling and matchups. But in the process, he agreed with Qerim’s overall point.
“That’s why I said I wanted (Sanders) in the SEC or the Big 10,” Smith retorted. “I didn’t watch them all the time. I watched them against stiff competition.”
Both Qerim and Smith are thick-skinned and know what makes for great debate television. They have worked together too long for a dust-up as small as this one to get between them, but it’s rare for anyone to call Smith out.
For whatever it’s worth, Qerim is undeniably correct here. Part of what makes First Take so entertaining to so many people is that it focuses on the flashiest, most famous people and teams in sports. That’s the whole point. What appeared to bother Qerim in the Belichick conversation is that in the process of always ratcheting up the flash on First Take, Smith was ignoring the glaring intrigue around the legendary coach — and potentially alienating viewers in the process.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.