Stephen A. Smith might not hold back on his opinions, but there’s no denying he’s a leading voice in sports media. People pay attention when he speaks, especially regarding the bigger picture of the industry.
When the First Take host was asked about Bill Belichick’s potential foray into sports media during a live recording of the Green Light with Chris Long podcast at SXSW, his thoughts were worth noting.
“I’m gonna tell you something. I think that Tom Brady — for example — is going to be a superstar in broadcasting,” Smith said in response to Kyle Long’s question about Belichick entering sports media. “I’ve interviewed and talked to him; I believe in Tom Brady. I think he’s going to be spectacular — trust me on this. I don’t think Bill Belichick is going to be good at all. And it’s not about his talent. It’s about the fact that you don’t go from not giving a damn about the audience and having virtually nothing to say for years to people suddenly caring about what you have to say.
“You have to ingratiate yourself with an audience, to give them something to look forward to when you have the opportunity to do so. You can’t be on top of your pedestal — literally for decades — winning six Super Bowls, going to nine Super Bowls as a head coach, 11 overall as a defensive coordinator and head coach, never having a damn thing to say. And all of a sudden, now that you can’t get a job, we’re supposed to care about what you have to say?”
Long quipped that Belichick was in his caterpillar stage and must be a butterfly now. Smith wasn’t having that either.
“And here’s where the deal is, and here’s how you know it,” Smith continued. “We live in an age where you see youngsters entrenched in analytics and data — quantitatively, qualitatively — looking at things a certain way, managing, analyzing it, and speaking the language of the owners. Why do you think Bill Belichick don’t have a job? That’s the reason. Because these guys want to do what they want to do. And you know damn well Bill Belichick has forgotten more football than most of the people know. So once he comes in-house, who’s he gonna listen to? Nobody believes he’s going to listen to them, which is going to disempower and strip them of whatever potency they hope to have, which renders their job useless. Who’s going to hire somebody who thinks they’re gonna make their career get reduced to that? The answer’s going to be no one.
“So, in order for Bill Belichick to land a job at the National Football League level, it’s going to have to be a decision made by an owner himself as opposed to some young executive he’s handed the reins to. Because that young executive is going to want someone other than Bill Belichick because he’s going to want to be a voice that his coach is going to want to listen to, and there’s nobody in hell that’s gonna believe that Bill Belichick gonna listen to him.”
Chris Long jokingly suggested Stephen A. might need to coach Belichick on navigating the modern sports media landscape. Smith, however, chuckled and expressed doubt about his ability to offer advice, considering how much the industry has transformed since Belichick last interviewed for a job over 30 years ago.
Smith says that with the rise of podcasts and other new media, there are many different ways to make money. But if a business isn’t marketable, it won’t matter how they try to monetize their product. In other words, marketing is essential for any business, regardless of the latest trends.
“You tell me one person who trusts Bill Belichick to market something for them,” added Smith. “I know he’s going to win, and ultimately, winning might pull it off; don’t get me wrong. But that’s applicable to everybody. We know what he was going on with Mac Jones the last two years. We know that he used a special teams coordinator (Joe Judge) and defensive coordinator (Matt Patricia) as an offensive coordinator, which basically ruined the career of Mac Jones. We know all these things. We know what his record has been since Tom Brady departed. Not to say that the man can’t coach, but damn it, when he didn’t have the star players, what did he look like?
“So, now we got to take into account his ability to talk to media and to serve to market the franchise. He doesn’t do it. He doesn’t have any interest in doing it. And I think it ultimately cost him a job this offseason.”
