Stephen A. Smith calls out Mike Florio for implying everyone at ESPN supports Protect College Sports Act

ESPN has loudly promoted advocacy for the Protect College Sports Act, but Stephen A. Smith insists not everyone at the Worldwide Leader supports the legislation.

Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio caught Smith’s attention over the weekend when he published an article titled, “ESPN continues its not-so-subtle advocacy for the Protect College Sports Act.” The article came after Nick Saban and Pat McAfee used College GameDay to urge Congress to pass the bipartisan legislation. The network’s support of the bill seemed even more evident this past Saturday when Rece Davis interviewed Ted Cruz (R-TX) on GameDay to promote the Protect College Sports Act.

Despite ESPN’s repeated display of support for the college sports senate bill in recent weeks, Smith still took issue with Florio’s headline implying the entire network is unified on the issue.

“I hate when people do that,” Smith ranted on his SiriusXM Radio show Tuesday afternoon. “What do you mean ESPN’s not-so-subtle advocacy for Protect College Sports Act? There’s a whole bunch of people at ESPN that doesn’t necessarily advocate for the Protect College Sports Act. You’re looking and listening to one of them right now. I think there’s some modifications that need to be addressed and implemented, but I’m not down for this overall Protect College Sports Act.

“Mike Florio says, ‘Anyone who supports the Protect College Sports Act opposes player rights.’ I’m not sure I totally agree with that, but I understand his point. And I think with some of the rules that college sports would love implemented, I don’t blame Mike Florio one bit for saying that. But that doesn’t mean everybody at ESPN feels that way. ESPN is my daytime job. I can’t stand when people do that. They try to give this opinion that everybody at ESPN feels a certain way. I don’t look at NBC and automatically assume that everybody at NBC feels the way Mike Florio does.”

Smith said he believes there should be caps placed on college athletes in terms of the number of transfers they can make and the amount of money they can be paid by a school, but he does not support the Protect College Sports Act. After his rant, Smith welcomed Charles Grantham, the first executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, to the show. And Smith echoed Grantham’s belief that any rules or limitations placed on college athletes should be collectively bargained, not legislated by Congress.

“What’s shocking to me about all this is there seems to be a push for this Protect College Sports Act to be invoked and implemented before you collectively bargain, why?” Smith asked.

Smith similarly had Chris Murphy (D-CT) on his political radio show last week to push back on the Protect College Sports Act. Smith’s digital shows are large platforms, but he has not used his ESPN show to counter GameDay’s advocacy for the bill. If First Take were pushing the need for any limitations placed on college athletes to be collectively bargained with the same fervor that GameDay is pushing the Protect College Sports Act, maybe ESPN wouldn’t be getting lumped together as having unanimous support for the legislation.