Stephen A. Smith and Dan Orlovsky on First Take Stephen A. Smith and Dan Orlovsky on First Take.

You can always count on Stephen A. Smith to touch on important or controversial issues. Social, political, scandalous, Smith doesn’t shy away from any of it. And most recently, he weighed in on the matter of gas supply.

During ESPN’s Monday Night Football pregame show Monday Night Countdown, analyst Dan Orlovsky seemed to have simultaneously sneezed and farted on live television. The incident sparked mass debate on social media, with football fans questioning whether Orlovsky followed his sneeze with some accidental flatulence, or if the fart noise came from his mouth.

Later that night, the retired quarterback appeared to blame the incident on his first experience with blue cheese, seemingly implying there was indeed a gas leak in the ESPN booth. But on Tuesday, Orlovsky went on Twitter and pushed back on the notion that he broke wind, prompting Stephen A. Smith to offer his expertise on the matter.

After complimenting Orlovsky and Ryan Clark for their analysis on ESPN’s NFL Live, Smith followed his praise by stating he did not believe the former quarterback farted on air.

Orlovsky spent much of his Tuesday responding to people on Twitter who inquired about the incident. The Monday Night Football analyst supported Smith’s assessment by refusing to admit he broke wind.

I’m not sure what’s more interesting about the above tweet, the fact that Orlovsky was addressing Monday Night Football fartgate or the account he was responding to.

“My mic is on my face not my butt” is a solid defensive effort by a former quarterback. But clearly Orlovsky is not a big Howard Stern fan, where hundreds of investigations over the years have proved the microphone does not need to be near the rear to amplify a fart.

I’m confident Orlovsky passed gas on air, but I’ve been duped before, specifically by Chris “Mad Dog” Russo. We all once faulted Russo for farting on MLB Network, only to have the radio Hall-of-Famer return with receipts to prove he was blowing his nose. Considering Russo and Smith’s obvious expertise on the issue, the only logical solution seems to be putting Orlovsky’s incident on the board for a First Take debate.

[ESPN]

About Brandon Contes

Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com