Stephen A. Smith questions Dan Orlovsky’s exaggerated goodbye from ‘First Take’

Dan Orlovsky has made a habit of offering emotional goodbyes from First Take after the Super Bowl, and Stephen A. Smith wants to know why he keeps coming back.

The Monday after the Super Bowl last month, Orlovsky was on First Take to put a bow on the NFL season. But at the end of the show, Orlovsky signed off with a prolonged farewell, signaling he wouldn’t be back for a while. It took a few weeks, but Orlovsky returned to First Take later in February, and he was prominently all over ESPN this week to cover NFL free agency news, prompting Stephen A. Smith to ask what the emotional goodbye was all about.

“Dan Orlovsky, what are you doing here? You had us sit there and did everything but give you a hug and throw a swan song party for you when the Super Bowl was over, like we wasn’t gonna see you again” – Stephen A. Smith pic.twitter.com/Vb5VjmhKCY

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 12, 2026

“Dan Orlovsky, what are you doing here?” Smith asked. “You’re supposed to be on vacation. The reason I’m asking this question, Dan Orlovsky, because even though I love you, my brother, and you’re on the show, you had us sit there and did everything but give you a hug and throw a swan song party for you when the Super Bowl was over, like we wasn’t gonna see you again. This is the second time I’m seeing you this week, my brother. I’m not mad about it, but I wanna know, what are you doing here?”

Orlovsky claimed this was just par for the course, telling Smith that he always takes the rest of February off following the Super Bowl, then returns for a few days during free agency. He comes back again around the NFL Draft, and then takes an even longer hiatus into the summer.

“So, in other words, you were never really going to be gone,” Smith said. “You just acted like you were going to be gone so we could celebrate you while you were departing, even though you were never really going away.”

Orlovsky did the same last year, but it received more attention because his contract with ESPN was about to expire. After the NFL season, Orlovsky began receiving offers from other networks and really didn’t know if he would ever be back.

“You guys know this is the end of the season for me…I’m taking a break, won’t be on TV for a long time,” Orlovsky said last year after the Super Bowl. “I love you all. You never know what the future holds, but I’m taking a break…So I just want to say thank you. I appreciate you guys so much.”

Orlovsky’s post-Super Bowl sign-off comments from First Take were similar this year, but he left out the “you never know what the future holds” part. Because now that he’s in the middle of a multi-year deal with ESPN, his future is a little more set. Instead of being some sort of coy message about his future, Orlovsky claims it was just his way of showing gratitude.

“I’m on every day during the season. So when I go from 100 to zero, I like to take 30 seconds to say, ‘thank you for allowing me to be a part of the show.’ That’s it,” Orlovsky told Smith. “It’s called being grateful.”

Has there ever been an NFL quarterback who has been the butt of a joke as much as Orlovsky is? Credit him for being self-deprecating, because most NFL quarterbacks, backup or not, would exude more of an ego, but Orlovsky’s unique personality has become part of his appeal on TV.