Steve Smith Sr. is about to become a bigger part of ESPN’s daily NFL lineup, according to Front Office Sports.
FOS reports that Smith’s timeline and destination within ESPN’s lineup remain undecided, but the shows in play include Get Up, First Take, NFL Live, and a still-unannounced afternoon program expected to be hosted by Peter Schrager, airing at 2 p.m. ET immediately after The Pat McAfee Show.
Smith’s addition would put him alongside a growing group of NFL Network faces ESPN has absorbed since taking over the network on April 1. Kyle Brandt has drawn a similar expectation for this season, with Get Up appearances already floated as a weekly fixture. Those expanded roles come as ESPN works through a rebuilt NFL rotation still dealing with the fallout from this summer’s layoffs, which claimed names including Ryan Clark and Cam Newton and left the network with more open real estate across its NFL programming than it’s had in years.
The former Carolina Panthers and Baltimore Ravens wide receiver has spent his entire post-playing career at NFL Network since retiring after the 2016 season. He also partnered with longtime NFL Network insider James Palmer on The 89 Show, a wide receiver-focused podcast — under the Blue Wire umbrella — where Smith breaks down the position through the lens of someone who played it at the highest level, while Palmer leans on the front-office and coaching sources he’s cultivated throughout his reporting career to either validate or challenge what Smith sees on film.
Smith’s profile has only continued to grow in NFL circles since launching the podcast. But professionally, that momentum came during what he later described as one of the most difficult periods of his personal life. In an appearance on Meadowlark Media’s Football America! last October, Smith, a first-time finalist in 2025 after becoming eligible in 2022, admitted he was relieved his Hall of Fame candidacy hadn’t yet come up for a vote.
“The lie would be I’m a 10. But honestly, over the years, it’s actually reduced itself down to a one or to a zero,” he said. “And here’s why: I’ve already played and done a career that no one, including myself, ever saw coming. So whenever it happens, it happens.
“And I really say it’s on God’s time because, as you know, there’s some things that have happened personally in my life that I believe the Hall of Fame stuff would be overshadowed. It would be very difficult right now, personally, to be celebrated in that regard and deal with some of the personal things that I’m dealing with with my kids that right now, I’m glad I don’t have to deal with the Hall of Fame stuff.”
Smith appears to have been alluding to a story that emerged earlier last year when a man named Anthony Martinez publicly accused the former wide receiver of having an affair with his wife, who was a member of the Baltimore Ravens’ marching band. The man later sued Smith under North Carolina’s “homewrecker” law, seeking $100,000 in damages.
Both the public allegations and ensuing lawsuit received widespread attention and even prompted one of Smith’s sons to speak out regarding the “hateful” messages his family had received. Factor in that the 5-time Pro Bowl selection possesses a massive extended family that would be traveling to Canton, and the 47-year-old insists that he’s just fine waiting at least another year for his Hall of Fame enshrinement.
“My bandwidth can only take so much. My emotional capacity is just is very limited right now,” said Smith at the time. “Football has started and has given me a great opportunity to be able to be kept busy, get the opportunity to really avoid it. But at home and at times when I’m by myself, I have to process it.
“So that’s why I’m glad I don’t have the Hall of Fame stuff to budget to deal with because I wouldn’t be a grateful Hall of Famer at this point because I’d be so emotionally overwhelmed, which would come across like I’m not grateful, or I’m agitated that I didn’t get in sooner.”
None of that appears to have altered Smith’s trajectory at ESPN, which is reportedly moving forward with plans to expand his role.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.