Stephen A. Smith defends fellow ESPN host Pat McAfee calling out sports media: ‘Don’t blame him’

Stephen A. Smith, one of ESPN’s best-known personalities, came to the defense of fellow sports talk host Pat McAfee after he shot back at reporters during a media day up in at the network’s Bristol, Connecticut headquarters. 

McAfee took the opportunity to hit back at what he viewed as unfair reporting on his show and the idea that he was never given a fair shake from those who cover sports media. 

“The Pat McAfee Show” is one of the network’s tentpole shows after it was brought on the daily program in September, but it hasn’t come without controversy. 

Smith, no stranger to controversy himself, spoke out about McAfee’s decision to defend himself during a recent edition of the “Stephen A. Smith Show.” 

“Pat McAfee, obviously, expressed his opinion about the coverage he was receiving from the media out there. I gotta tell you, you can debate delivery, presentation, whatever; what you can’t debate is that he made some very valid points,” Smith on his own show.

“Because people have been going at him from Day 1, they have been blaming him, and they have been trying to malign the show. And him speaking up for himself, I don’t blame him one damn bit — he was right to do so. Let me get that out of the way.”

McAfee has regularly found himself in the headlines, especially when it came to his weekly scheduled interview with Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers. 

Rodgers found himself in a verbal sparing match with ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel last year, which caused some headaches for the NFL punter-turned-sports media personality. 

McAfee reportedly ended up in a back-and-forth with CNBC’s Alex Sherman over a question about “journalistic standards.” 

“I think they’re misguided,” McAfee bemoaned during the ESPN media day. “I would appreciate if you would give me and my guys a chance. I think we’re helping out sports media as a whole in the future. I think we’re going to get some things wrong and we apologize for that. But whenever you’re ripping our s— and trying to kill us, I think ‘journalistic standards’ certainly is problematic.”