FRISCO – There is no question that Stephen A. Smith is very, very good at what he does.
The question is … what is it that the $100 million ESPN loudmouth does, exactly?
Stephen A. has made a handsome living in part due to talent, in part due to work ethic and in part due to cartoonish trolling of the team he pretends to hate …
The Dallas Cowboys.
It’s mostly junky low-brow comedy that comes out of this, with only the most casual Cowboys fans bothering to wonder if it carries any weight.
But every once in a while, the bellowing self-parody of a journalist forgets his place and goes too far … pretending to know things that are well beyond his grasp and essentially lying to unsuspecting millions in his audience.
And Smith just did that.
The ESPN host is now questioning whether Dak Prescott commands true respect in the Dallas Cowboys locker room.
“Do people respect the man who doesn’t show up in January?” he said, with that patented smirk and manufactured conviction.
Forget football for a moment, and whether you think Dak is …
-“Worth $60 million per year.”
-A “top-5 QB” or “not in the top 20.”
-“A good player who has not and therefore will not lift his team to real playoff success.”
Those are all legit questions and subject to debate.
But … leadership? A question about whether he commands a room that Stephen A. – who I don’t believe really knows whether a football is pumped up or stuffed – has never stepped foot in?
The suggestion that the Dallas locker room doesn’t respect Dak is an inane, insulting and irresponsible one.
There is no person inside or near The Star who thinks that, and I’m reminded of no less an authority that Troy Aikman once telling me that Prescott is a fine a leader as Troy has ever encountered – as high a praise as one can imagine.
And we’ve known for a long time that he doesn’t get the “football part” of anything.
Stephen A. Smith is an actor on a stage, not a football analyst. But that doesn’t free him from achieving some level of responsibility.
Be funny, ESPN.
Make noise, ESPN.
Seek attention, ESPN.
But, ESPN … don’t lie.
