Stephen A. Smith rips ESPN’s ‘over-excessive’ use of ‘breaking news’

ESPN should know they can’t just slap a ‘breaking news’ tag on anything NFL-related to interrupt Stephen A. Smith’s First Take.

After getting released by the New York Giants last week, Daniel Jones signed with the Minnesota Vikings Wednesday morning and ESPN had the gall to let that news usurp First Take’s rundown. Smith was asked for his opinion on the move and he struggled to muster anything more than, “Okay,” with a dismissive hand wave and eye-roll.

“I had to emcee a journalism event this week and one of the subjects that was mentioned was the over-excessive use of breaking news,” Smith said. “Everything’s ‘breaking news’…and so, we’re having a beautiful, compelling discussion about college football and the rankings and Alabama and Georgia and Ohio State and all of this other stuff. And we have to cut the segment short because we got breaking news coming. ‘Wow! What is it? What happened? I can’t wait to hear what happened! What’s going on now?’ Daniel Jones is going to the Vikings.”

And it wasn’t just ESPN interrupting First Take with the news that Smith took issue with. He also had an issue with Jones’ decision. Jones went from the 2-9 Giants to the 9-2 Vikings with a head coach known for resuscitating quarterbacks, and all Smith did was mock him for being Sam Darnold’s backup.

Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo differed with Smith and believed it was a great landing spot for Jones, but he agreed that the signing probably didn’t warrant the “breaking news” treatment.

“It is a little strange, we’re ‘breaking news’ for Daniel Jones,” Russo said before questioning the producer’s decision to interrupt their college football segment with this news.

Jones might not be the biggest needle mover in terms of NFL quarterbacks, but a starting NFL quarterback changing teams during Thanksgiving week is a rare enough occurrence that it probably warrants “breaking news” coverage.

Smith questioned whether it would have deserved the same treatment if Jones wasn’t formerly with the Giants. But the better question might be, how would Smith have reacted to the news if Jones was signing with the Dallas Cowboys? Not only would it have deserved a “Breaking News” label, but it may have dominated the rest of the show.

[First Take]