Stephen A. Smith defends Pat McAfee going after sports media: ‘He made some very vaild points’

Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee have butted heads at times.

But as the two faces of ESPN, they’ve put their differences aside, understanding that there’s more at play here. Yes, the two may have gotten into an explosive, heated argument. Still, the First Take host has praised the former Indianapolis Colts for setting his market and coming to his defense numerous times.

That most recent instance was on his The Stephen A. Smith Show over the weekend. Smith addressed comments McAfee made toward the media during an open panel discussion with media members, who have sharply criticized or critiqued him in the past. While he didn’t necessarily agree with how McAfee went about his rampage against sports media, Smith seemingly had no problem with the message’s bottom line.

To recap, McAfee challenged CNBC’s Alex Sherman’s definition of journalistic standards; he called out The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand and even came after Awful Announcing. Here’s a sample of those quotes via Daniel Kaplan, who was on-site for AA in Bristol.

“You can certainly paint me and my guys as terrible people. And I think that was happening for a lot of people as they were getting a lot of clicks,” said McAfee. “I mean, Awful Announcing is in here somewhere. I don’t know who you are, but like, man, future earnings with, like slander, libel, character assassination, stolen clips, all that shit. Like, if I wanted to ever deal with suits, which I don’t, and everybody knows that that could be a thing, like I can make that all the thing.”

“Pat McAfee, obviously, expressed his opinion about the coverage he was receiving from the media out there. I gotta tell you, you can debate the presentation, whatever; what you can’t debate is that he made some very valid points,” said Smith. “Because people have been going at him from Day 1, they have been blaming him, and they have been trying to malign the show. And him speaking up for himself, I don’t blame him one damn bit — he was right to do. So, let me get that out of the way.”

Smith and McAfee might not always see eye to eye, but they have a unique bond. They’ve shown time and again that they can appreciate each other’s strengths and support each other when it counts. And with Smith no stranger to media criticism himself, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he’d not only empathize with McAfee’s frustration but also defend McAfee’s ability to attack the media.

[Stephen A. Smith]