Last week, retired MLB closer Jonathan Papelbon took aim at the king and seemingly missed. In an appearance on the digital baseball show Foul Territory, Papelbon called ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith racist and xenophobic while alleging Smith was kicked out of covering the Philadelphia Phillies while Papelbon played there.
In a response on his podcast posted Friday, Smith dismantled Papelbon’s claims, calling him “desperate” and subtly threatening to sue if Papelbon didn’t pipe down.
“I didn’t even know you were a contributor to a podcast until this morning. But I can go tit for tat with you,” Smith said on The Stephen A. Smith Show Friday. “What I won’t do is disrespect you to the degree that you just disrespected me.”
Smith clarified that he left the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2010, two years before Papelbon ever played for the Phillies, meaning Papelbon’s claims of Smith being banned from the team’s clubhouse while he was pitching in Philadelphia are likely false.
“That has never happened in any sport. I’ve never been thrown out of a locker room, I’ve never been thrown out of a clubhouse. I’ve never had any discipline action exacted against me,” Smith said. “Because I have never been professionally unethical in my career. That is a lie. Now, I could sue your a** for telling such a lie like that. But I won’t waste my time.”
Smith also corrected the record on his comments around Shohei Ohtani in 2021, which led Papelbon to call him “xenophobic.”
“When you’re a man and you know you’re wrong, you man up. And that’s what I did. Because I was wrong,” Smith said. “You know what I’m not wrong about? Calling you a liar. You don’t know me.”
Smith recalled bringing Jeff Passan and Joon Lee on First Take to correct him about Ohtani after he criticized the two-time MVP for needing a translator.
As for the accusations of racism, Smith hardly gave them much time, instead drawing a contrast between himself and Papelbon.
“I think that when people bring up the word ‘racist,’ if they looked at you and I sitting together, I think they would look at you before they looked at me,” Smith said.
Papelbon didn’t have much to go on playing the race card in the first place. He thinly connected Smith using the N-word on air on ESPN in regard to Kobe Bryant to the First Take host being racist.
“I’m a Black man. We have a history of experiencing racism. And a lot of times, those experiences comes courtesy of people who look like you. And I would never think to call you a racist,” Smith added. “What you said is wrong, irresponsible, it’s petty. And if it was to get a reaction, it’s desperate. Because now that you don’t have your playing career to lean on anymore, I guess you need help in other areas … be a grown up, bro.”
After a segment responding to Papelbon, Smith put a bow on the short-lived “beef” by highlighting Papelbon’s clear attempt at attention.
“I understand that now that your baseball career’s over, you’re pretty much irrelevant,” Smith said. “And as a result of that, you have aspirations to get at me because I’m going to get you the clicks that you said I’m trying to get.”
The back and forth began when Papelbon came to the defense of Mike Trout, the MLB star who recently hit the IL for surgery. Smith chastised Trout for not staying healthy or dominating in a monologue last week on First Take.
There is something to be said for baseball media defending itself from a poorly constructed MLB take by a host in Smith who clearly no longer cares much about the sport. But Papelbon went beyond defending the sport or Mike Trout, resorting to calling Smith names and tossing out unfounded accusations. Smith rightly defended himself, and this is likely over.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.