I am going to let you in on a little secret.
What you see from a lot of sports media talking heads is “acting.”
They don’t really mean what they say. They are doing and saying things to go viral and become popular.
Do you know what the E in ESPN stands for?
ENTERTAINMENT
I would imagine a lot of former athletes like Ryan Clark, who comes from a sport that is a serious business and talking crazy would lead to physical altercations didn’t get the memo that Stephen A. is a TV character, and that is why he was planning to beat him out for his First Take antics.
While speaking to the Bussin with the Boys podcast, he talks about his early encounters with Stephen A.
“Stephen A. was talking about how athletes want his job, and they don’t have degrees,” Clark said on the show. The LSU mass communications graduate was eager to use his schooling at ESPN and teach his new co-worker a lesson.
“I can do your job, I do have a degree, and my hairline ain’t pushed back,” Clark recalled saying on First Take. Smith was off the day Clark filled in, but he heard all about the exchange and was ready to respond. Smith returned to First Take the following day and hammered Clark for his comments, concluding with, “as for anything else, Ryan Clark knows what he can kiss.”
Clark took those comments as fighting words from the highest-paid media personality at ESPN.
“Oh, Stephen A. Smith wants to fight me? I’m gonna whip him. Straight up,” Clark told a First Take producer at the time. “All the other stuff was cool, but the man’s gonna tell me to kiss his A-S-S? That means he wants to fight me.”
The fight never took place because Stephen A. apologized and never went that far with Clark again.
Sometimes you have to let your co-workers what lines can’t be crossed, even if it is just for entertainment, clicks, views, likes, and RTs.
Flip the page for the video of Clark on Bussin With the Boys.
