Despite a budding a relationship with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, Stephen A. Smith insists it won’t deter him from remaining unbiased on First Take.
After debating Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo Wednesday morning on First Take, Smith joined his SiriusXM show while making the media rounds at Super Bowl LIX Radio Row. And during the interview, Russo asked Smith about his relationships with the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL commissioners.
“You and Goodell are best buddies!” Russo said while asking Smith about his ability to “keep your independence” on sports talk shows.
“They know me, so they know what comes with me,” Smith said after claiming it’s not hard. “I’m gonna be straight. I’m gonna be honest, I’m not gonna get personal. And more importantly, I’m not trying to disrupt the business. You know, I answer to the public. The stories that you want to see talked about, I talk about. The questions you want to see asked, I ask them. See, people try to bloviate and go beyond that. And that’s where the stupidity comes in.”
We’ve seen it recently from Smith, not necessarily with the commissioners, but with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Smith has a personal relationship with Jones, but that didn’t stop him from recently comparing the Cowboys owner to Joe Biden by calling out his cognitive decline.
“When it comes to the commissioners or anybody else, we have a contract with the NFL. We have a contract with the NBA. We have a contract with hockey, we have a contract with baseball. These are our partners,” Smith acknowledged. “That doesn’t mean I can’t call it like I see it, but what it does mean is there’s no room for personal agendas where I’m want to do some gotcha moment or anything like that. If I got a question to ask one of these commissioners or executives, I’m gonna ask.”
Smith used having all four commissioners in studio for separate interviews on First Take in 2023 as evidence of his ability to maintain personal relationships while still asking the tough questions. To Smith’s credit, he did ask questions that needed to be asked during those interviews. He asked Roger Goodell about former NFL.com reporter Jim Trotter’s legal complaint alleging racial discrimination by the league, which was ongoing at the time. What Smith didn’t do, was attempt to poke holes in any of the answers to those tough questions, but he did ask the necessary questions.
Regardless of his personal relationships with commissioners, it’s ESPN’s relationships with the leagues that will always take precedent. Even if Smith never texted with Roger Goodell privately, he would still owe it to ESPN to be somewhat protective of their partnership. If Smith suddenly began to incessantly defend every league from every controversy, it might cause viewers to take pause, but that hasn’t been the case.
