FRISCO – It’s not football. It’s theater.

And Stephen A. Smith being handed a new five-year, $100 million contract courtesy of ESPN proves that.

Part of the act? Smith has developed a reputation as a “Cowboys hater,” even though it’s bogus.

He doesn’t know enough about the Dallas Cowboys to “hate” them. What he knows if that an ESPN talks about “America’s Team,” that usage generates eyeballs and headlines.

And voila, a guy gets paid $100 million!

Smith, no dummy, is rarely on the mark (he pretty much doesn’t know whether a football is blown up or stuffed) when it comes to analysis.

But there are times when he’s funny.

This is not one of those times.

Former Cowboys defensive lineman Chris Canty is now an ESPN colleague of Smith’s, as as it happens, Stephen A. is a New York Knicks fan.

The Knicks are not faring well in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals against the Indiana Pacers and are now down 3-1 in the series.

Canty suggested they’re losing because of Smith’s bad karma.

Smith tried to ping-pong back the idea.

“It’s that damn Chris Canty, I’m telling you right now, he does a phenomenal job for us on ESPN Radio every morning,” Smith began. “But ever since he got that damn radio show, he’s gotten more evil. That’s what he’s done. That’s what he turned into.

“Chris Canty used to be this nice big teddy bear … and then all of a sudden, he gets the morning radio show and he is just slicing and dicing people up – calling folks frauds and everything like that. And now he’s trolling me. I’m gonna get him.”

When is “evil” funny?

Not here.

When does “sports” stop and lame attempts at “entertainment” begin?

Here, we suppose.

Smith is fully capable of analyzing the Knicks.

Canty is fully capable of analyzing the Cowboys.

We suppose we’ll never know the answer to this, but … what would ESPN as a sports network look and sound like if they tried that?