Stephen A. Smith's take on Jay Cutler led This Week In Hot Takes.

Welcome to another edition of This Week In Hot Takes, this time looking at the hottest sports media takes from Nov. 10-16. Let’s get to it.

5. Seth Greenberg and Pat Forde argue that LiAngelo Ball and other UCLA players arrested for shoplifting should be suspended for a year and/or encouraged to leave the school: The scandal that saw three UCLA players, including LiAngelo Ball, arrested in China for shoplifting and eventually returned to the U.S. after President Trump intervened, produced plenty of fiery takes. One of the hottest was from ESPN’s Seth Greenberg, who delivered one of the loudest halftime show rants ever after Jay Williams’ take that the players should be suspended for “a couple of games.” Greenberg went off, yelling at Williams that the players should be suspended for a year and/or encouraged to leave the school:

Greenberg took a lot of criticism for his vehemence here, but Yahoo Sports’ Pat Forde endorsed it and even argued for expulsion for the players:

Look, opinions can and do vary on how severe the punishment for these players can be, and a case can be made that Williams’ push for just a couple of games was too light. But ranting about it on-air the way Greenberg did isn’t the best way to make that case, and neither is going even further with the suggestion of expulsion the way Forde did. Those are some hot takes.

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4. Phil Mushnick (again) bashes foreign NCAA players: Surprisingly, New York Post columnist Mushnick’s hottest take this week comes not from any of his many terrible-overall columns, but from a Veterans’ Day column that’s generally pretty good otherwise, focusing on two New York Giants’ players who lost their lives in World War II. And then, after some silly ramblings about NFL tackling, he really ruins it by going back to one of his favorite nonsensical complaints, foreign NCAA players. Here are some lowlights:

Here, there, everywhere, Division I colleges are losing money along with their missions and minds for what? To win ballgames.

The University of the Pacific, in Stockton, Calif., heavily recruits from across the Atlantic. Its current field hockey team includes eight women from South Africa, two from Belgium, one each from Spain and Holland. Whatever it takes!

Same with tennis. Current male recruits are from Zimbabwe, Egypt, Armenia, Spain, Brazil and England. (Two are from the United States.) Female recruits are from Holland, Israel, Romania, Ecuador and Spain.

Pacific last year exceeded its athletic budget by $4 million. Its men’s basketball program was sanctioned and fined by the NCAA for illegal recruiting, academic fraud and providing investigators with false information.

Tuition to the private college this year was raised 4 percent to $48,000 per student — not including housing and food. It’s crazy. But winning ballgames remains many colleges’ highest, most expensive and most shameless priority.

None of that makes much sense, Phil. If your complaint is that the school is spending too much on athletics, fine, but players’ nationalities don’t particularly affect that. And neither do the men’s basketball sanctions; they don’t have much to do with field hockey or tennis. So the school should be spending the same amount of money on athletic scholarships for less-talented American players so they can lose more competitions? Right. This is just bad jingoistic nativism, and it’s depressing that Mushnick continues to have a platform to trot these arguments out..

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3. Aussie rules journalist Mike Sheahan attacks soccer for…having draws? It’s always fun when those who cover one sport weigh in to bash another without much knowledge or research, and that seems to particularly happen with soccer. The latest case comes from Australia, where AFL (Australian Football League, or Aussie rules football) journalist Mike Sheahan went off on soccer after the first leg of the Australia-Honduras World Cup qualifier:

Football commentator Simon Hill on Tuesday defended the Socceroos and the world game in the face of a bizarre attack from veteran AFL journalist Mike Sheahan. Discussing Australia’s 0-0 draw with Honduras in the first leg of their World Cup qualifying tie on Saturday, Sheahan slammed the 90 minute display as “rubbish”.

“I couldn’t believe what (football) served up in Honduras. It was played on a cow paddock, no goals were kicked, and if there was a highlight I missed it,” Sheahan told SEN on Monday.

“If this code is as big as it is … the Hondurans are coming out in a cattle truck and the Australians came home in first class. The AFL wouldn’t do that. Why wouldn’t FIFA get involved?

“How do you have an event where your aim is to not win it?

“It’s just to hold them to a draw. It’s not about goals? You go across the world to not win a game of the sport?”

Hill didn’t understand why Sheahan — who isn’t involved with football in a professional capacity — would comment on a sport he has no attachment to and is no expert on.

“If he doesn’t like the game, why is he watching it?” Hill told SEN Breakfast today.

Why indeed, Simon. Why indeed. Also, really,  the biggest complaint is that Australia picked up an away draw, paving the stage for their home win and their World Cup berth? Plenty of Australian soccer fans are probably fine with that outcome, even if Sheahan isn’t.

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2. Ryen Russillo says millennials are “terrible for society”: Nonsensical millennial-bashing is practically an industry at this point, and ESPN Radio host Russillo is the latest to cash in on it.

“Nobody likes the arrogant millennial at the office, look, I’ll admit I don’t like it either. But the way these young players are playing in the NBA and they’re expecting to be great right away, they’re playing almost in a disrespectful manner, that’s actually a good thing. These young guys are not coming into the league being polite, they’re coming into your house and they’re putting their feet up on your coffee table without even introducing themselves. ‘Hey, I’m here.’ When you’re playing basketball…it’s not great for your everyday guy in life, but when you’re playing hoops, that’s the way you want to be. Arrogant, entitled, ‘I’m here, I’m not waiting for my thing’ millennial, who we all hate in the workforce, is great for the NBA.”

Hmm. Not sure Russillo should be the one talking about others “coming into your house and putting their feet up on your coffee table.” But sure, it’s the damn disrespectful millennials who are ruining things.

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1. Stephen A. Smith calls Jay Cutler “a disease”First Take co-host Smith went off on Miami Dolphins’ quarterback Cutler this week:

“What have I told y’all? Jay Cutler is a disease! This dude, let’s look, y’all, any team, everybody. I mean, you can say Jay Cutler’s the cure to anybody’s else’s disease. Any time you go against him, something good is going to happen! He’s horrible! He can’t galvanize anyone. …These guys look uninspired, disinterested. Any time Jay Cutler’s your quarterback, that’s usually what happens!”

“A disease,” really? It’s far from the first hot take on Cutler, but this is a lot further than most go.

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Honorable mentionDarren Rovell on Indiana basketball hitting “rock bottom” by Michigan holding a promotion night against them: 

Notable absences: Skip Bayless, Colin Cowherd.

Hot Take Standings: 

Stephen A. Smith – 142
Skip Bayless – 118
Phil Mushnick – 97
Colin Cowherd – 43
Shannon Sharpe – 30
Rob Parker – 23
Doug Gottlieb – 22
Charles Barkley – 19
JT The Brick – 17
Albert Breer – 16
Don Cherry – 15
Ray Lewis – 14
Rick Morrissey – 13
Kristine Leahy – 10
Chris Broussard – 10
Garth Crooks – 9
C.J. Nitkowski – 9
Bill Plaschke – 9
Michael Rapaport – 8
Tony Massarotti – 8
Jason McIntyre – 8
Bart Hubbuch – 8
Danny Kanell – 7
Dan Dakich – 7
Keith Olbermann – 6
Michael DeCourcy – 6
Luke Kerr-Dineen – 6
Terry Bradshaw – 6
Greg A. Bedard – 6
Michael Felger – 5
Howard Eskin – 5
Nancy Armour – 5
Richard Justice – 5
John Middlekauff – 5
Bill Plaschke – 5
Ameer Hasan Loggins – 5
Jesse Watters – 5
Jeremy Roenick – 5
John McGrath – 5
Ross Tucker  – 5
Mike Sielski – 5
Gordon Monson – 5
Scott Fowler – 5
Bob Brookover – 5
Berry Tramel – 5
Mike Bianchi – 5
Terry Frei – 5
David Jones – 5
Sabrina Parr – 5
Abbey Mastracco – 5
Terry Cushman – 5
Rob Rossi – 5
Rick Bozich – 5
Michael O’Doherty – 5
Simon Briggs – 5
Dan Wetzel – 5
Mike Parry – 5
Bob Ryan – 5
Robert Reed – 5
Pete Dougherty – 5
Dan Le Batard – 5
Marcus Hayes – 5
Kyle Turley – 5
Mike Ditka – 5
Erril Laborde – 5
Lowell Cohn – 5
Rosie DiManno – 5
Frank Isola – 5
Ryen Russillo – 4
Shawn Windsor – 4
Brock Huard – 4
Byron Tau – 4
Maggie Gray  – 4
Michael Powell – 4
Mark Spector – 4
Chad Forbes – 4
Gary Myers – 4
Mark Schlereth – 4
Andy Gray – 4
David Fleming – 4
The Sporting News – 4
Jeff Pearlman – 4
Tony Grossi – 4
FanSided – 4
Cris Carter – 4
Kirk Herbstreit – 4
Tony Kornheiser – 4
Mike Felger – 4
USA Today op-eds – 4
Nathan Ruiz – 4
Mike Sheahan – 3
Bob Ford – 3
Dan Shaughnessy – 3
Steve Greenberg – 3
Matt Burke – 3
Malcolm Gladwell – 3
Mike Milbury – 3
Mac Engel – 3
Nick Kypreos – 3
Jason Smith – 3
Caron Butler – 3
Don Brennan – 3
Robert Tychkowski – 3
Mike Johnston – 3
Mike Francesa – 3
Jeff Mans – 3
Joe Browne – 3
Mike Harrington – 3
Greg Mitchell – 3
Seth Greenberg  – 2
Pat Forde – 2
Doug Smith  – 2
Newsweek – 2
Teddy Cutler – 2
Will Cain – 2
Bill Cowher – 2
Paul Finebaum – 2
Charley Casserly – 2
Amin Elhassan – 2
Jim Henneman – 2
Mitch Lawrence – 2
Nick Wright – 2
Domonique Foxworth – 2
Gary Parrish – 2
Michael Farber – 2
Andy Furman – 2
Donovan McNabb – 2
Seth Davis – 2
Jon Heyman – 2
Jason La Canfora – 2
Dan Wolken – 2
Booger McFarland – 2
Joe Schad – 2
Cork Gaines – 2

Thanks for reading! Tune in next week for more This Week In Hot Takes. As always, you can send submissions to me via e-mail or on Twitter.

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.