Sports fans, especially NFL ones, have often woken up to the shouting matches on “First Take” with Stephen A. Smith and other guests for more than a decade on ESPN. It’s long been the go-to show for morning viewers and became perfect for the common NFL term “Overreaction Monday.”
But was there ever a thought about First Take moving out of the morning slot? Smith not only addressed that on his podcast on Thursday morning, but he also dove into how the much-discussed 2013 Richard Sherman interview altered things for the ESPN show.
Stephen A. Smith Explains How Richard Sherman Impacted ‘First Take’
The Super Bowl-winning cornerback, then with the Seattle Seahawks, was a guest on the show during a time when Smith and Skip Bayless were the stars. Fans, though, remember Sherman for ripping into Bayless.
The tensions began with Sherman drilling to Bayless, “Whenever you refer to me, whenever you speak to me, you will refer to me as All-Pro Stanford graduate because those are accomplishments that you can aspire to, but you’ll never accomplish.” Then, he continued blasting Bayless by saying, “You have never accomplished anything.”
Furthermore, Sherman ripped into the current Fox Sports 1 personality by calling him “pompous, egotistical and ignorant.”
While Sherman earned strong backing from his “12th man” fanbase and athletes who have long taken criticism from Bayless, Smith shared that the interview eventually denied First Take an opportunity to move out of the morning lineup.
“That appearance by Richard Sherman, even though Skip didn’t go after him, for all the reasons Skip articulated accurately, we didn’t get First Take put on in the afternoon,” Smith said. “They left us in the morning. That appearance by Richard Sherman cost us an afternoon slot for ‘First Take.”
Skip left some things out when speaking on some past First Take moments pic.twitter.com/rDBW99Vefl
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) August 31, 2023
Skip Bayless and Sherman Relived Moment Recently
Oddly enough, Sherman and Bayless are co-workers on Fox.
Sherman is part of the new lineup on FS1’s “Undisputed.” And Bayless shared “what you may not know” about that well-known spat between the two on Aug. 28.
Bayless said, “We’ve learned a lot about each other,” and added how both “are now totally cool” now.
Bayless added how he liked Sherman a lot and “pushed hard to have him as a teammate” on the FS1 show.
Sherman claimed he overheard Bayless already being critical of him as the mic was coming on, sparking the perennial Pro Bowler to go after him. Bayless even shared how the interview wasn’t meant to be controversial but ended up becoming one of the more infamous moments on ESPN and halted plans to move out of the morning slot.
The two men ultimately reconciled and are now leading the new Undisputed show, while SAS will soon be joined by former Undisputed panelist Shannon Sharpe.