ESPN's $100 Million Investment In Stephen A. Will Go Down as All Time Bad Contract | Bobby Burack

ESPN is stuck with Stephen A., and unfortunately, so is America.

When ESPN re-signed Stephen A. Smith to a five-year, $100 million contract earlier this year, we predicted that ESPN would come to regret the investment by the end of the deal. Our prediction might've been too conservative.

Smith's role at ESPN was a frequently discussed subplot of the NBA Finals, during which he served as ESPN's lead pre-game and halftime analyst. His coverage was met with near-universal disapproval from fans, commentators, and former players.

"Stephen A. Smith’s nonstop screaming turned fans off before Game 7 even began," the New York Post wrote before the start of the final game between the Thunder and Pacers.

Smith has become increasingly predictable. He doesn't seem all that interested in the content and resorts to the same tiresome antics of shouting and challenging the hearts of players on the court. It didn't help that he was caught playing solitaire in the arena during the second quarter of Game 6.

But that hasn't stopped ESPN from jamming him down the throats of viewers. Smith was also front and center of ABC's coverage of the NBA Draft on Wednesday, which was also met with widespread criticism.

The sports media blog Awful Announcing concluded afterward that "America needs a vacation from Stephen A. Smith."

We concur. So does FS1 host Nick Wright. Wright recently explained how Stephen A. Smith has started to "dilute" ESPN's marquee events. "If you use Stephen A. for all of your big stuff... if everything is him, it doesn't feel special," Wright argued. "It dilutes it."

Miami-based radio host Joe Rose just asked that ESPN keep Smith away from its NFL coverage.

"It’s an overdose of one guy," Rose said of Smith. "Listen, he made a name on his show with the debating on all things sports, and I know he’s now dabbling in a lot of different things, but I see recently some people have just said, ‘Enough, man. Enough of Stephen A. Every time you turn around, Stephen A.’s in your face. He’s on this show, he’s on that. Now he wants to have a bigger role on the NFL.’ He has all the NFL guys on his show, and I’m like, ‘Don’t. Please, please keep Stephen A. off the NFL stuff. Let him do his debating show in the morning.’"

Unfortunately, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro told reporters last month that Smith's new deal includes appearances on the network's coverage of the NFL this upcoming season.

"We are very open to Stephen getting more involved on the NFL," Pitaro said. "We’ve had some exploratory conversations with him. We know that the league really likes Stephen."

Well then.

At least Smith has a nearly 30-year background covering the NBA. He hasn't covered an NFL game in over two decades. His knowledge of professional football is minimal, as evidenced by often forgetting which players play for which team.

Stephen A. has no more association with the NFL than any other bombastic talking head. He has no business joining the coverage of Monday Night Football. 

In fact, his elitist shtick in which he belittles sports fans outside of New York and Los Angeles will not fly with NFL fans. During the NBA Finals, Smith frequently complained on air about having to take a charter plane to Oklahoma City and Indianapolis. Try making similar complaints about trips to Green Bay and Buffalo and see how NFL fans respond.

While Pitaro could listen to fans and keep Smith away from future events, he also needs to justify Smith's $20 million-a-year salary. Put simply, ESPN overpaid Stephen A. and is now stuck trying to monetize his brand where it most certainly doesn't belong.

In actuality, there's no real calculation that suggests Smith is worth his new contract. As longtime sports writer Jason Whitlock noted, even the idea that Smith draws ratings is skewed by the lack of competition elsewhere. 

"Greatest myth in television is that Stephen A Smith impacts ratings. He doesn't. He's never faced an ounce of legitimate competition," Whitlock said on X. "Sharpe/Bayless on a startup network that simply duplicated ESPN's existing show isn't competition."

Smith isn't Rachel Maddow, for whom nearly 50 percent of the viewership is dependent upon. He is a product hosting a show on the only sports network with any real reach across the country.

Furthermore, ESPN has done such a poor job of establishing other stars that it has made Stephen A. appear more important than he is.

If Pitaro and John Skipper hadn't spent the past decade trying to make stars out of Jemele Hill, Bomani Jones, Dan Le Batard, Mina Kimes, Kate Fagan, and Sarah Spain, the gap between Smith and the others wouldn't be as noticeable.

To put it another way, no one has benefited more from ESPN's devotion to DEI and certain CAA agents than Stephen A. has. He's ESPN's biggest star only by default.

Surely, ESPN management knows all this. They saw how Smith covered the Finals and the NBA Draft. It made them cringe as much as the public. They also know, deep down, that adding him to Monday Night Football would undermine Disney's $2.7 billion-a-year investment in the NFL.

But they are stuck. They have already signed on the dotted line and are forced to try to make it work. In the end, ESPN's $100 million investment in Stephen A. Smith will go down as one of the worst media contracts ever approved.

Written by
Bobby Burack is a writer for OutKick where he reports and analyzes the latest topics in media, culture, sports, and politics.. Burack has become a prominent voice in media and has been featured on several shows across OutKick and industry related podcasts and radio stations.