![\"BROOKLYN,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/743f3d62ea4c5867e2c3c2f0c225b312.jpeg\"\/)
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BROOKLYN, NY – JUNE 26: Steven A Smith looks on during the 2024 NBA Draft – Round One on June 26, 2024 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. (Photo by Kostas Lymperopoulos\/NBAE via Getty Images)Kostas Lymperopoulos/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Should Smith be part of ESPN’s NFL coverage?<\/p>\n
Bobby Burack of OutKick believes ESPN’s decision to put Smith on “Monday Night Countdown” is a slap in the face to NFL fans.<\/p>\n
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“Adding Smith to NFL pregame coverage underscores how disconnected ESPN leadership has become from sports fans,” Burack wrote<\/a>. “While competing networks rely on Terry Bradshaw, Tony Gonzalez, Matt Ryan, JJ Watt, Rob Gronkowski, and Tony Dungy, ESPN has chosen to put Smith on set with Ryan Clark,\u00a0a racially obsessed buffoon<\/a>.”<\/p>\n Burack isn’t the only person who dislikes this new role for Smith. A handful of fans called out the popular ESPN personality on Monday night.<\/p>\n “Stephen A. Smith is not a positive addition to MNF,” one fan said.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n “Nobody asked for this,” a second fan wrote on X.<\/p>\n “Stephen A has ruined the MNF Countdown,” a Ravens fan wrote<\/a>. “He\u2019s turned this in to First Take. I purposely don\u2019t watch that bullshit because everything is about viral clips and clickbait. Don\u2019t want to listen to it on a pregame show.”<\/p>\n ESPN has not yet announced when Smith will be back on “Monday Night Countdown.” In the meantime, NFL fans are going to voice their displeasure on social media.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n We’ll see if Smith’s role as an NFL analyst expands despite the public’s opinion of him.<\/p>\n This story was originally reported by The Spun<\/a> on Sep 23, 2025, where it first appeared in the NFL<\/a> section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NFL fans aren’t exactly pleased with Stephen A. Smith this season. Smith is undoubtedly one of the hardest-working…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,631,3055,794,21353,35234,593,74139,108243,85,41711],"class_list":["post-164363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-detroit-lions","tag-espn","tag-jj-watt","tag-matt-ryan","tag-nfl","tag-rob-gronkowski","tag-ryan-clark","tag-sports","tag-stephen-a-smith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}