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Stephen A. Smith, Mina Kimes Fire Back at Aaron Rodgers Over QB’s Criticisms of ESPN

Kristen Wong

Screengrab on Twitter/ @awfulannouncing
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In the wake of Aaron Rodgers’s recent blunt criticisms of ESPN, Stephen A. Smith isn’t taking the New York Jets quarterback’s harsh words too personally.

Smith, one of ESPN’s most recognizable personalities of the past decade, believed Rodgers’s comments weren’t directed at him. That was the simple reason why he wasn’t the least bit offended while discussing Rodgers on Thursday’s episode of First Take:

“That wasn’t about me,” Smith told his colleagues. “Primarily his points were made toward former athletes who are now in the media. 

“I knew he wasn’t talking about me when he said this, ‘[ESPN] wasn't like this back in 2008.’ No, no, I've been this way all my life… This ain’t about somebody like me. That man said former players who are trying to keep themselves relevant.”

Smith then opened up the discussion to fellow ESPN analysts Dan Orlovsky and Mina Kimes. Kimes, a 10-year veteran at the company, took the opportunity to cleverly point out Rodgers’s hypocrisy:

“I’m not offended by it at all,” Kimes said. “He's espousing that opinion on a personality-driven program that employs him as a personality during the NFL season."

Earlier this week, Rodgers ripped the “experts” employed by ESPN—many of them former players–who he claimed were driven to give “asinine” takes about sports in order to stay relevant.

As Kimes ruthlessly points out, if Rodgers was truly going to stand behind that opinion he had better point the finger at his longtime buddy and former Indianapolis Colts punter, Pat McAfee, too. McAfee left FanDuel to sign a five-year, $85 million contract with ESPN and could arguably be considered the biggest “personality hire” that the company has made, considering the sheer number of experienced analysts ESPN decided to part ways with since bringing on the rambunctious talk show host.

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Kristen Wong
KRISTEN WONG

Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.

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