If you thought Stephen A. Smith might admit he was wrong about his recent Tua Tagovailoa take that went viral, joke’s on you.
Two days after Smith was blasted for minimizing the Miami Dolphins quarterback, he went on First Take and claimed he isn’t seeing a wave of Tagovailoa critics.
“Why are you all acting like this dude has been victimized,” Smith said Thursday morning on First Take. “And ‘Oh my lord, they’re killing him.’ Who are these people?! Who?!”
The irony in the above statement is that Smith was the latest person to broadcast Tua slander, which Dan Orlovsky and Kimberley A. Martin were quick to point out. During Tuesday’s episode of First Take, Smith downplayed Tagovailoa’s success this season by intimating he specializes in two-yard passes to Tyreek Hill.
“I don’t know if y’all watching Miami enough. All of these passes ain’t for 19, 20, 30, 40 yards. You just got Tua dipping it two yards to [Tyreek Hill].” – Stephen A. Smith.
We counted five long passes by Tua in the accompanying highlights package, while all of Tua’s short… pic.twitter.com/btq7YALLTj
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 17, 2023
“I don’t know if y’all watching Miami enough,” Smith said Tuesday on First Take. “All of these passes ain’t for 19, 20, 30, 40 yards. You just got Tua dipping it two yards to him and he’s the one taking it to the house.”
Interestingly, while Smith was seemingly questioning Tagovailoa’s downfield ability, ESPN was airing a highlight package that showed the Miami Dolphins quarterback making deep passes.
“You continue to intimate when saying that Tyreek Hill can take a two-yard throw and turn it into a big play…you make it very Tua-centric,” Orlovsky told Smith on Thursday. “If you watch this offense, Tua’s throwing the ball downfield more than anybody in football…you gotta stop intimating that.”
Smith attempted to defend himself by claiming the First Take segment in question was about Tyreek Hill, not Tua Tagovailoa, which is why he was highlighting Hill’s greatness by noting his ability to turn a short pass into a big gain.
Stephen A. would like to know who the critics victimizing Tua are…”Who are these people?” pic.twitter.com/u9MYjtZzcq
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 19, 2023
“The subject yesterday was about Tyreek Hill compared to some of the greatest receivers we’ve ever seen,” Smith said. “We weren’t talking about Tua. I was saying, Tyreek is the kind of dude that we’ve seen take a five-yard pass and take it to the house. He’s that electrifying. Pull the clip! You did not hear me say that’s all Tua does. That’s not true! That’s false! I am not going to allow you to come on this show and give a false narrative about my assertions.”
The clip has been pulled. And while Smith didn’t say “That’s all Tua does,” he did say, “You just got Tua dipping it two yards,” which is pretty close.
Here’s the other problem with Smith’s defense: while he’s correct that First Take had a segment surrounding Hill’s greatness on Wednesday, his viral analysis about Tagovailoa occurred on Tuesday. And during that Tuesday segment, First Take had “Is Tua the clear-cut NFL MVP right now?” on the chyron.
Smith didn’t say “You just got Tua dipping it two yards” as a way of making the point that Tyreek Hill ranks among the greatest wide receivers of all time, he said it as a way of making the point that Tagovailoa is not the NFL MVP frontrunner. The only false narrative is the one Smith tried to present on Thursday by claiming he wasn’t downplaying Tagovailoa’s downfield ability.
