Stephen A. Smith urges Dan Orlovsky to never use the word ‘fudge’ again: ‘It’s corny as hell’

Stephen A. Smith loves to remind everyone that First Take is still his show, and as the person in charge, he refuses to let Dan Orlovsky use certain words.

Orlovsky had issues with how the Los Angeles Rams played their season opener against the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne, Australia. So many issues that he asked, “What the fudge are you doing?” To which Stephen A. Smith urged him to never say that again.

“Could you stop using the word ‘fudge’ on TV… It’s corny as hell” – Stephen A. Smith with some advice for Dan Orlovsky pic.twitter.com/2bvTCs0Ne5

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 11, 2026

“Could you stop using that word ‘fudge’ on TV?” Smith interjected. “Number one, it’s corny as hell. And number two, and most importantly, it might compel one to slip up one day and say the other F word, and we don’t want to do that. Come up with something different than fudge.”

Dan Orlovsky has the makings of being someone who should be the coolest person in just about every room he’s in. He’s a former NFL quarterback; he’s in great shape; he appears to still have a full head of hair; he’s very comfortable on television. And yet he just can’t help himself from giving people more and more reasons to poke fun at him. The best part about Orlovsky is that he sets people up to make fun of him so naturally, and he never sees it coming.

Orlovsky genuinely thought using the word “fudge” was really going to drive his point home about the Rams’ miscues Friday morning on First Take. But Stephen A. Smith never even heard Orlovsky’s point. He only heard “fudge,” and had to ask what that corny former NFL quarterback was doing.

Now it’s on Orlovsky to take a page out of Pat McAfee’s book. FCC be damned. If Stephen A. Smith doesn’t want fudge, then Orlovsky needs to just drop an f-bomb. Try to make fun of that.