SI

‘First Take’ Has Fun Ribbing Stephen A. Smith Over Reported $120 Million ESPN Deal

Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo said ESPN needs a salary cap after reports say Smith will earn $20 million a year in new deal.

Jimmy Traina

Reports say Stephen A. Smith is about to get a BIG raise.
Reports say Stephen A. Smith is about to get a BIG raise. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

1. Variety reported Tuesday night that Stephen A. Smith was close to re-signing with ESPN.

From Variety: “The two sides, who have been in negotiations for several months, are said to be hopeful they can reach a deal over the next several weeks, according to a person familiar with the situation.”

ESPN president Burke Magnus recently gave an update on Smith’s contract negotiations during an appearance on SI Media With Jimmy Traina. "Absolutely we’re making progress there,” said Magnus. “When you’re talking about a person of his magnitude and his talent, it’s very complicated in terms of what he’s looking to get out of it and what we’re looking to get out of it.”

The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported that the deal would be for $120 million over six years. Smith told Marchand the reports of a new deal were false.

That did not stop Chris “Mad Dog” Russo and Jeff Saturday from tweaking Smith about his expected financial windfall on Wednesday’s episode of First Take.

At the top of Wednesday’s show, the reports of a new deal weren’t directly addressed, but Russo alluded to Smith being “very chipper.”

Later in the show, Russo said to hell with subtly and openly started talking about the $120 million deal and even had Jeff Saturday read the report directly from a newspaper, which led to Russo dropping a hilarious line about ESPN needing a salary cap.

In one of First Take’s final segments on Wednesday, Smith again reiterated that the reports were false, which just means that you can be assured he’s re-signing for six years, $120 million.

2. Since there wasn’t much to watch last night (I’m not watching NBA games on those ridiculous courts that make my eyes bleed), I checked out the new edition of Hard Knocks featuring the four teams from the AFC North.

This is the first time Hard Knocks covered four teams at once and I thought it worked. The show was entertaining and kept my interested for the full hour.

The highlight of the premiere episode was Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow talking to teammates about buying the Batmobile. Apparently there were only 10 Batmobiles made and the cost is $3 million.

3. Here is the best weekly segment on all of sports TV: “Bad Beats.” I enjoyed this week’s edition even more than usual since I was on Notre Dame this past Saturday, but that Navy–East Carolina game was as brutal as it gets.

4. I’m not sure exactly what’s going on here with the baseball card angle since this was done by Topps, but in this video, Larry David brings back his George Steinbrenner imitation that he did a bunch of times on Seinfeld to explain why the Yankees drafted John Elway in 1981.

5. We all know the NFL rules all, but here’s a ratings nugget that shows you just how much of a stranglehold it has on this country.

Saturday’s Ohio State–Michigan game drew 12.3 million viewers for Fox. It was the lowest rating for an Ohio State–Michigan game since 2017.

Amazon’s Chiefs-Raiders game the day before on Black Friday drew 13.5 million viewers.

An NFL game on a streaming service outrated what is usually the most-watched college football game each season.

6. The latest episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina features a conversation with Good Morning Football’s Kyle Brandt.

Brandt talks about GMFB’s move from New York to California this season, whether he was shocked when he got the news about the show’s new home and how he feels about doing the show remotely about 90% of the time.

Brandt also explains how his vignettes for CBS’s NFL Today come about, his process for writing his own scripts and how he came up with a piece to spoof the New York Jets by using the intervention scene from The Sopranos on GMFB.

Brandt also talks about which team he’d like to see win the Super Bowl this season, the popularity of his “Angry Runs” segment and seeing people wearing his T-shirt, and his philosophy for doing  podcasts.

Following Brandt, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York, joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, we talked about Sal’s big Christmas tree dilemma and read Apple reviews for SI Media With Jimmy Traina that came in during November.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Speaking of Brandt, he dropped a great reference on Wednesday’s episode of Good Morning Football regarding an awkward fight that Burt Reynolds and Double Dare host Marc Summers once had on the Tonight Show.

If you’ve never seen it, it’s an all-time late night moment.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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