Transcript of Greg Cote Did NOT Like The Pat McAfee Album | Hour 2

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You know about that? For life.

For life.

That hurt. I don't know if you heard that bang there. I just hit my arm.

Oh, that was— I thought that was your emphasis.

No, that was an accident.

I thought it was meeting the moment.

Tell them The Le Batard Show sent you.

Yeah, I mean, propose the question to the rest of the room that you just proposed to me about wearing gear of your favorite team.

Let me start with this. T-shirts, hoodies, whatever, hats celebrating accomplishments that are not a championship. So for instance, conference, Eastern Conference champions or Atlantic Division champions has one of those shirts.

The shirt that you're referencing is Miami Heat 2023 NBA Finals. That's what it says.

Yeah.

Loser shirt.

I'm—

it doesn't say I'm very proud of the Miami Heat's appearance in the NBA Finals that year. That's why I wear it.

Be proud without the shirt.

How about a playoff shirt?

It was like sad White Hot shirts that they put on the back of the chair, like a polo.

You know what this is? Well, because I was a fan of a pathetic franchise, and when the Browns made the playoffs, I was like, I gotta buy all this stuff.

So, so the Browns won the division when you were a Browns fan, you would have—

Browns never won the division.

But if they had, when you were a Browns fan, you would have bought an NFC?

Yeah, I would have. And I've seen like a Bengals like 2022 AFC North division champ shirt in the wild.

That's lame as as hell.

Never forget.

Okay, all right, so I would never— we're saying— okay, so we're saying no, but, but you would wear a playoff shirt and you would and have worn a Finals shirt, right?

Yeah, like, like I would not wear it. So it's a 2023 Miami Heat NBA Finals shirt. If it was— because I'm very proud of the run they made and— well, I mean, I, I'm sure I got it before the series ended, but the, the comparison I would make is I would never wear a 2023 Miami Heat Eastern Conference Champion shirt. That's bullshit.

But you would wear the Finals shirt.

But I'm wearing the shirt that says they were in the Finals.

Well, the Finals is basically, in a roundabout way, saying, hey, you're Conference Champion.

I have a weird thing. I love, like, getting shirts that celebrate Finals, 'cause you get the dual look.

I like that too.

I like Super Bowl shirts. I try to collect them all.

I like that too.

Double helmet shirts, give me that all day.

Or WrestleMania shirts where it's Bret Hart and Stone Cold.

Yeah, but when the Miami Hurricanes made it to the National Championship game, I told myself, I'm not gonna buy any of the merch on the front end. Because I'm going to regret this. And I'd buy everything in the afterwards and I didn't buy anything for that game. But I have no, no physical merchandise memory of playing in that game.

So let me ask, let me, let me play it forward. So let's say you have one of these shirts, a division championship, a finals shirt, a playoff shirt, and then that year your team actually ends up winning would you still wear? Would you still wear the other stuff?

Mhm.

I would not because I would never have the other stuff.

I—

Panthers were a long-suffering fan base. I did buy like, because there was a whole new merch drop for playoff, Stanley Cup playoff stuff. And remember, it's not just the NHL playoffs, it's the Stanley Cup playoffs. And the Panthers had been out of that thing for so long.

Okay, so you're talking about wearing a Stanley Cup Florida Panther 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

And I think they won the Stanley Cup that year. But I still like, like what I got during the—

Right.

I would wear that. But you're not, you're not wearing, you know, from like in 2022 when they won the President's Trophy and they won the Atlantic Division. You're not wearing a Florida Panthers Atlantic Division champion shirt. It's different. I would not wear that.

Well, I guess my thing is like, if they won the title that year, why would I ever wear anything else from that year? Like, I remember that time we won like Team of the Month or whatever.

Like, it was— I took a risk before the Fiesta Bowl because the merch was so good. I was like, I'm going to buy this on the front end. And if we lose, I'm never wearing this ever. Ever. And that was a lucky bet.

So you have a Miami Hurricanes Fiesta Bowl champion shirt?

Yeah. And that's a memorable game, too.

That's a weird— that's a weird one. That's— that's a weird one because my, my line of thinking would be, no, I would not wear that because the Canes did not win the national championship. But the Canes fan exorcised a lot of demons from winning that game.

We did. And also, like, it's weird. You've seen the rings that Miami football gave out to its players. The CFP is so weird that these aren't just playoff games that you're winning. The one in College Station, that was a playoff game that we won. But we are Goodyear Cotton Bowl champions.

You get a Cotton Bowl ring?

No, no, no, we're not just that, but we're also Fiesta Bowl champions too.

You get a Fiesta Bowl ring?

Well, because you get the trophy.

So you're getting rings for all of these things?

No, there's a—

Oh, no, Durkin didn't give a shit about that trophy after the game, remember?

Yeah, he didn't give a—

He did not care.

No, no, no, but In college football, plenty of people get rings. Duke, their football team got rings because they were ACC champions.

7-5.

Yeah, nice 5 losses.

Middle Tennessee State gave their team rings when they won a bowl game at the end of their season, and the score that they put on the ring wasn't for the bowl game, it was for when they beat Miami earlier in that season. A huge chunk of college football teams give out rings at the end of the season.

So Jostens is just making money hand over fist from all these stupid-ass small team.

My rings are Johnson's.

I don't— I'm not crazy about it, but the current construct of college football and its CFP is you are champions of the Cotton Bowl, you are champions of the Fiesta Bowl, and in any other season that mattered and dubbed by college football worthy of a championship ring. So there's a billboard, and I don't feel like a champion last year. I feel like second place. Yeah, well, no, no, you On the 8:36, it's Cotton Bowl champions, Fiesta Bowl champions. I'm like, I don't feel like a champion of either.

Yeah, I got an update from Dave Damashek who writes in saying two words: Orlando Sentinel.

Chris, have you heard back from AJ Burnett?

I've heard back from not AJ Burnett or the guy from Syracuse.

Okay, so you haven't heard back?

Correct.

Got it.

A no would have sufficed.

I did find my picture from Universal Studios with AJ Burnett. Yeah, circa 2015. I put it up to the, uh, hopefully I'll pull it up.

Yeah, I'd like to see.

Behind the Hulk.

I love that roller coaster.

Not the roller coaster.

Yeah, I know, that's a great ride, man. Oh, look at that.

There it is.

Oh, me and AJ.

Wow. Yeah, the shins.

It was, it was cold that day.

Yeah, yeah.

Look at AJ with Chels cargo shorts.

Look at that. We got Chelsea jersey out of you, huh?

All right, rocking the camouflage.

Where's the legs?

Dan Levitar.

I want to address, uh, Tony and all men who would wear that shirt in public. Greg Cody, don't do it.

This is the Dan Levitar Show.

Now, Greg, you are aware that we have a running theory on the show, and I think we played some clips for you last week that AEW WWE, which is All Elite Wrestling.

Yeah.

That we, we think they have been using your catchphrases on their programming.

Well, some of us—

I know that they have been, and I don't know whether to be flattered or upset. We talked about this on, on my own Greg Cody Show podcast in the current episode, if you want to check it out. At some length we talked about this, and I ultimately, I'm flattered. Like, I don't know what the latest is. I wish they would give me credit, if I'm being honest.

Wow.

So hold on, this is It's not something that you had to go out and say that you're flattered.

Yeah.

As if there was a chance that you'd be insulted by them using this without name-checking you.

Well, yeah, of course.

But if they were actually doing this, they'd be doing so to honor you. I gotta be honest, that's a very weird reaction to it, and now I'm hoping it's coincidental.

Acknowledge me?

I don't— hold on, guys.

If this happens in journalism, you call it plagiarism. You can't just use somebody else's material without crediting them.

Dude, you didn't invent these words.

I invented saying, "Who won?" But Greg— No, you didn't.

Your mom did.

Nana Duke did that. Anytime I go out to a game and Peepaw is like, "Hey, where'd you go? Who won?" He didn't invent that.

Okay, but is he going, "Who won?" Like that?

Greg, look, I'm a big fan of Greg Cody. I'm a big supporter of Greg Cody. I think this is where I have to stop short. I just feel like these are common phrases that just happen to be being used.

Okay, very good is a common phrase. How about if you say it very good?

I mean, like, that's something that happens.

They haven't done that, but it could.

Okay, okay, well then maybe your argument gets boosted. I don't know if you've heard the latest, but I— the points that Amin is making—

are these new or these—

this is the one that we played last week. It's new to Greg.

Got it. Okay.

So I admittedly came in last week ready to essentially take Amine's role here and poo-poo the whole thing, that it's totally coincidence and it's not a real thing. I think it is definitely a real thing and that it's way too many coincidences. I think they are using your catchphrases. And then late last week I had a listener send me this video which contains two— I'm gonna play it for you here, Greg. Which contains two different instances in the same segment of what I certainly believe now is them using your catchphrases. Give this one a watch.

What'd you learn, huh? What'd you learn, huh? What'd you learn, huh?

What'd you learn, huh?

Like, this is just him dispensing, okay, like, just as a, hey, what'd you learn?

That isn't delivered the way my dad— like, my dad says What'd you learn?

Okay.

Because it's just so—

I think there's still some debate here.

Teaching them a lesson. What'd you learn? Because, like, I learned to never mess with you again. Like, that's what we're doing.

Okay.

We're not talking about a pile of 5 or 6 catchphrases that we've heard on AEW. If it's just one, there's not even a discussion when it's this many.

And this wrestler in particular has been involved in several of them.

Right. And I don't expect on-the-air credit, obviously. But if this guy—

although you started this saying, how would that go?

Like you do.

How would that go?

Here's what you learn, huh? Thanks, Cody. No, but if that wrestler between matches is doing an interview and somebody says, hey, I like when you go, who won? And somebody else goes, who? Who? Who?

And yeah, yeah, I think that's how promos go.

The people— yeah, I don't know. People— hey, that's a great promo.

Tony Schiavone is not going to be like, hey, you said who won the other day? Where'd you get that from? That was brilliant. That's not how wrestling works, pal.

Fine, okay, yeah, I don't know pro wrestling, and I admit that.

The who won is accompanied by someone who's saying who, who, who, which to me, the first place my mind went was the Baja Men. I didn't go to Greg Cody.

You think the Baja Men are out here being like, man, Clark Connors should be thanking us?

So here in the exact same segment, there's another reference to a Greg Cody catchphrase.

Okay.

We're rolling now, huh?

That's great. I'm grinning like a Cheshire cat eating briars, or whatever that expression is.

It's your expression. I'll tell you what, if they work that one in next week, you're on to something.

Okay.

No, I'm playing. We're rolling now, huh?

Uh-huh. At the end, that one, that's of all the ones that have been done, that's the one that feels the most like wrestling.

They said, hurry, we're rolling now, huh? What do you want, punk, huh? Like they're just yelling, huh?

It's actually more likely that they're doing a tribute to the Baja Men. Their nickname is the Dogs. That's their name.

Who let the dogs out?

And he was doing who, who, who, and they're the Dogs. Who let them out?

Who, who? What about Who won? Well, I don't know.

All right, well, you know what?

Speaking of which, let's see the—

let's listen to that one.

Yeah.

Juice Robinson versus Clark Connors. Who won?

Who?

The Guns versus the Dawgs. Who won?

Who?

And in a double chain match, who took Juice and Jerry out?

Who?

Who? Who?

Who?

Yeah, it's Baha Men.

That's Baha Men, man.

That one's Baha Men.

Not the who won.

That's a remix.

The Who? That's a combo. Who is but not The Who.

Greg Cody, Baha Men remix.

He said the guns versus the dogs, who won? Like he's doing that voice. He's doing the mocking voice that I do. Should I take credit now? Oh, he's using my mocking voice that I usually do.

So Amin, Baha Men, Greg Cody, they all have an argument here.

Okay, so all 6 or 7 of the phrases of mine that they happen to use that's It's just a— what a coincidence. That's unbelievable coincidence that they would say the same things as me in the manner that I say them. Total coincidence.

Greg, as a wise man once said, to a hammer, everything looks like a nail, right? Like, so in your mind, yeah, it's all stuff because you're a hammer and you're looking at all these things that look like nails poking out. In reality—

If I had a hammer—

To a narcissist hammer.

A narcissist hammer.

I'm not going to call Greg Cody. I don't like it when Dan does it.

I don't either.

I don't even like it when you guys do it. Don't call him a narcissist.

I mean, what else is there? It's either a Greg Cody tribute or Greg's a narcissist.

Dad, how many times did you listen to your podcast yesterday?

I listened to all my podcasts twice. Once as a listener and once critically.

Quality control.

It is quality control.

It's amazing.

I'm with you on that. Who has the time for all that? I listen to it as a listener would on the audio, like Spotify or Apple, and I listen to it as critically on YouTube.

Oh, okay, I want to—

are you—

like, I want to envision this. Are you sitting on your couch and you're— so when you're listening as a fan, are you sitting on your couch and you're just there listening on your phone?

No, I'm generally doing that as part of my morning routine when I'm taking my pills, brushing my teeth. That's when I'm doing the audio thing.

And they'll also sometimes listen in his garage in pitch dark.

Well, that's normally when I listen to the— listen and watch to the YouTube version later in the evening in the dark. Yeah, well, no, I mean, it's, it's streetlight, you know, my garage door is open.

Oh, you're one of the house— you keep your garage open, you hang out in your garage.

I meant pitch black, by the way, not pitch dark.

Okay, I got what you meant. Wait, you think—

why do you watch it in your garage?

Um, that's like my mental man cave. Yeah, yeah, I have a nice backyard. My wife's always going, why don't you go in the backyard? Yeah, because I don't, you know, I don't want my neighbors to hear me listening to my own podcast.

I think it's a mental man cave. I just think it's a man cave. It's a physical location.

The front of your, like, the garage opens onto the street. Aren't there people around watching?

Greg's not a busy— I don't live near a major highway.

Yeah, but your backyard fence is one of those wooden fences where you can't see anything through it, so there's way more.

How loud are you blasting your podcast?

I don't know, you know iPhone, you can't get much volume out of an iPhone.

But you're saying you don't want the neighbors to hear.

Right.

Right. Just, you were smiling like what kind of cat eating what?

Cheshire cat eating briars.

Briars, which is ice cream, right?

No, the other briar.

Oh.

The one that grows in the wild.

Patch? And is that a catchphrase?

It is now, apparently.

Oh, no, no, no.

No, it's not.

Do not start that.

It's not a catchphrase.

We're gonna have to redo the whole ranking all over again.

No, it's only 70. It has not grown.

Well, how many times have you said that publicly?

Normally it's a donkey eating briars. Okay, so that catchphrase that I've said many times, and that's from the great Edwin Pope, one of my mentors. He used to say, like, grinning like a donkey eating briars. Yeah, I don't know where I came up with Cheshire Cat. I just threw it in there.

Well, Cheshire Cat's grin, famously from Alice in Wonderland.

There you go.

So now you've got the donkey grin from Edwin Pope, right? And you've got the Cheshire Cat grinning from Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll. You bring them together, this is kind of like our Sopranos, uh, winning time, winning time, succession show.

Yeah, we need a donkey versus Cheshire Cat grinnels.

Yeah, grinning contest.

Who wins?

That's right, who wins?

We're rolling now!

Down Levitar!

Can't trade Marino!

Nice hat!

It's what he's most known for. It's not like I'm holding on to it.

Great, Cody! Nice!

And we're 9-2, but it's Marino. And then the next time we Marino after Greg Cody traded him, he threw for 5 touchdowns.

Nice hat.

And he was being the man on the COVID of Sports Illustrated. You can't trade Marino.

Nice hat, asshole. This is the Dan Levatar Show.

So Greg, I heard you, uh, I mean, this was very shocking to hear, but you're not a fan of the new Pat McAfee album, huh?

Um, okay, I'm gonna tread carefully here because I'm—

because I hear a lot of people who really like it. I mean, I've seen people— well, yeah, I mean, you put on television A lot of people say, a lot of people, name one. Yeah, I was gonna say Orlovsky loves it.

Orlovsky?

Yeah, he said it was good.

Good.

Okay, coworker Kirk Herbstreit loves it, says got great messaging.

Imagine, imagine his coworkers, uh, approving of that.

Chris Cody liked it.

No, I'm going— I have not listened. I have not listened to it and do not plan to listen to it. So all I'm conveying, that's not fair, is some of the reviews that I've read.

You're reviewing the reviews?

Well, like, SB Nation called it, quote, a train of diarrhea and disappointment. Another review I read referred to McAfee as Jelly Roll, but much, much, much worse. So I'm just saying that the reviews I have read have not been flattering. Okay, maybe it's gonna win a Grammy Award. I have no idea. I'm just saying what I have read is not flattering.

You have a little idea.

I have a little idea, but I'm also jealous because the idea that I might someday, uh, sing and see an album of mine out would be great. I'm looking forward to it.

You did have a number one album.

Well, that's true too. I had a bit—

You did have a chart-topping album.

I had a bit part in it.

You had— What are you talking about? You had your own song.

Okay, but now I'm talking about a whole album of songs. We're working with the Hee Haw 3 on that. I don't want to say too much, but it could happen.

I love how algorithms work because I said, because I, you know, they flashed the COVID and I tried to read the Dear Diary part because I thought it was so ridiculous, but then they took it away. So I said, let me Google it. And so I type in Google, you know, Google does the autofill. It's a Diary of, and the first thing that comes up is Diary of Alicia Keys.

And Frank's not first, huh?

Nope. Second is Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Third is Diary of a Mad Black Woman, which is the—

when do we get to Anne Frank?

What's his name?

Tyler Perry.

The Tyler Perry thing. Uh, Anne Frank still hasn't shown up. They got Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules, the sequel. We got Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Long Haul, which is another sequel, I guess. Diary of, uh, nope, still Alicia Keys.

Wow. I'd have gone to Anne Frank first.

Rising figure. There you go. Anne Frank never came up.

Poor Anne.

Where's Anthony Fauci? There's a, there's a lot of people teeing off on him, but this is going to be a successful venture for him.

This is what it says. Oh my God. So the COVID we can throw up on the screen. It's him and he's kind of like doing this very intense chin stroke, whatever. And behind him it says, it's like supposed to be a page out of his diary. Dear diary, quote, you talk too much. Quote, you're going to end up working at a gas station. Quote, you never sit down. D-A-H-N. So many things said, only hateful breakthrough. I wonder when I'm dead if they'll ever tell the truth. What is the truth of Pat McAfee that we're not getting?

Good punter.

Yeah, that's a great—

I don't know, it does seem like he likes to talk about adversity, but the adversity gets to him. I, I don't know, it feels like, like, what is there? What adversity is there now, you know, other than people's reactions?

Hey man, becoming an NFL player, there's got to be a lot of it.

That's my point, that's my point. Like, this— people are having their jokes, but I do think it's going to be a successful venture in large part because I imagine Game Day is going to be using this as bump-in music, right?

Of course.

Yeah. So like, right, Pat McAfee, for whatever anybody thinks of him, every time he tries his hand in a new industry, he makes a million dollars easy. Like wrestling, podcasting, punting, anything he tries, he makes millions of dollars in.

But we don't see the adversity in all of that. There's a lot of adversity that goes along with deciding you want to be in wrestling.

This time people seem to think that he's bitten off more than he can chew. But if I had to, from where I'm sitting, I think he's going to make 7 figures off of this. In some roundabout way, he is going to be making money off of this thing. So yet another successful venture in another industry.

How much did he pay? How many— what do you think the production costs on this are.

Wow.

We're, we're going to go ROI on this one. I think he's getting the ROI on this.

Yeah.

People are talking about it. He's ESPN's biggest star. I don't think this made him less of a star. Now, you could argue it's quite the heat check and you can— many people are having the conversation, is this the tipping point?

You know, Diary of a Polarizing Figure 2 comes out, says, Mike, I need a feature. You jumping on?

It's a trap album, though. Yeah, I don't know how Pittsburgh became the South. I'm very confused about that.

Sit down.

I'm confused at the drawl that happens sometimes.

It feels a little bit like— like Pat McAfee's— he's on top. He's— he's so successful.

In case you're wondering what a Pittsburgh accent sounds like, just tune in on Fridays when Dave Dameshek comes in. Like, does that sound Southern to you? That's weird, right?

Okay, now I would listen to that album.

Let's go. That's what we got to do.

Yeah.

The Dave D'Amico.

It feels a little bit like when LeBron and the Lakers won the championship in the bubble and LeBron, after winning his fourth title, told everybody, I want my respect. It like, it feels, it feels similar what's happening there.

He's on top. He's on top.

He's on top.

I don't know. There's a confusing thing with Pat McAfee always that he is the, his whole thing is he has to be anti-establishment. But he's very clearly the establishment's pick.

When has he not been establishment? Right?

Like, I mean, when he was starting his career, he was— I know he came up, he came across as a renegade.

Here's this punter with a big mouth, he's making the draft pick and he's trashing the fans. That's it.

Yeah, like, but I guess he made it to a point where he is like, whenever ESPN needs something, he's the, the front-facing call, as we saw with the Patriot games and whatnot. Like, he is the guy. He's the biggest star in that network. They pay him as such. So there— I'm not saying he didn't reach— didn't meet adversity throughout his career. He's met plenty. But to like come around and try to get one off on the people that, you know, held him down, it's like, all right, we're trying to build some adversity now when things are going like— it's a mixed message because you face all this adversity, you're hated. But you point to all the stacks of money that you have within the album. It's just, he's in an interesting place for his whole brand, a brand that he references all the time, right? The brand is a big deal. But miss me with being like the guy that the establishment doesn't want when you're rep'd by Ari Emanuel and you're sending selfies out with Bob Iger and you're making $60 million off this deal alone. No, you're the guy. You're the guy and you have to deal with that.

Don't manufacture this whole thing that you're not the guy.

I think he thinks that his brand is bulletproof and he he may be right. I think he thinks, I can chum it up with Trump at the Patriot Games, I can put out—

but he's not political, right?

But I can put out a country-ish album and who cares what everybody thinks about it? I'm Pat McAfee.

I don't— yeah, that's another thing that bothers me. Clearly that's a trigger. Like, you can't say that you're not political when you're shaking hands with the president. And I, I can understand, like, oh, we respect the office. That's a, that's a conversation for a different time. If you're being used there I'm surprised.

I saw Pat McAfee at the Finals, I think a year ago. A lot shorter than I thought he'd be.

Really?

Yeah. He's not a tall guy.

Okay.

How tall would you say he is?

All right, so given him some adversity. Yeah.

5'10"? 5'11"?

Yeah, I'd say like 5'11".

Overcame being under 6 feet. Yeah. Good for you, Pat.

Everybody's talking about him. This is going to be used commercially and he's going to make plenty of money off of that.

And do you think— okay, let me ask you, do you think he's doing a bit when he's like, "Oh, this adversity"? Like, or, or does he actually think like, oh my God, everybody hates me?

That's how he's built.

And I don't—

I don't think he's gonna deprogram himself from that because that's how he's gotten to the heights that he is. But at some point, maybe someone should tell him like, all right, well, you're the guy now. The same way, like, look, Howard Stern was able to make it work. Howard Stern always felt dangerous until very recently, even when he was making millions of dollars. He always found a way to feel dangerous. So there is a way to do it. There is a way to rage against the machine that you are somehow a huge part of. I'm not saying it's not without their challenges, but you also have to walk the line. I never felt like Howard Stern was overexposed. And when you, when you reference a guy like Jelly Roll, Jelly Roll is at this fascinating crossroads in his career that, you know, it can go one of two ways for you. There's enough Jelly Roll out there. You're on everything too much. I'm overexposed. And that's the bet that Pat McAfee made here. Grow the brand, but also risk overexposure and be being at the receiving end of some jokes.

You can find him listed at 6'1", but his NFL Combine height was 5'11½".

There you go. So transitioning here.

All right. There you go.

All right, then.

Stephen A. Smith. Oh, from McAfee to Stephen A. Smith. Stephen A. Smith is very upset because the National Association of Black Journalists, right? Got that right?

Correct.

Yes, NABJ.

The NABJ gave, you know, they give out, I guess they had their, their annual summit, you know, and convention, convention, convention, and they did, and apparently it was a lot of fun. And well, they, they give out awards essentially, you know, and, and they gave a they get— some of them are negative, and they gave a thumbs down to Stephen A. Smith. What were some of the, the, the explanations, some of the reasons that they gave for Stephen A. Smith thumbs down?

Yeah, uh, they said that he, uh, disparaged Black women over the past year. Uh, those women include Jasmine Crockett, Kamala Harris, Serena Williams, Kerri Champion, Jemele Hill, and Michelle Obama.

Yeah, so Stephen A. Smith— and Stephen A. Smith has done work with them in the past, I believe, you know. and he was very unhappy, and so you get the whole, you know, I got a lot to say about this. So here's Stephen A. Smith on it. Now this is one of his many shows. This is Straight Shooter. So is this like the political podcast that he does?

It's like the Plain Dealer, right? The Straight Shooter.

It's one of those.

So here's Stephen A. Smith on Straight Shooter.

Where are your facts? Where are they? You don't have facts. You have feelings. Everything I am, everything that I've achieved, Everything that has uplifted me in my life has been associated with Black women. Black women have been my strength, my source of inspiration, and so much more my entire life. The greatest woman I've ever known is a Black woman, my mother, Janet Smith, God rest her soul. The women I love most in this world, my sisters, my nieces, my lady, everybody, Black women. What are you talking about disparaging Black women? That was a flat-out lie.

I just heard some breaking news there. Stephen A. Smith's got a lady.

That was what I took away from that.

Yeah, I did. I thought he was, he was playing the field out there. I thought he was, you know, I hadn't seen anything, but I just assumed someone as busy as Stephen A. Smith does not have the time to have a relationship.

So he basically threw his lady under the bus as well as the rest of his family, including his mom. His late mom.

He threw him under the bus.

No, he threw him under the bus.

He's using him as a meat shield.

I didn't hear that. Yeah, I mean, it is like, I got friends, but you know, I was—

I got a lady.

Yeah, I was interested to see what his reaction was, and I kind of knew what it would be, and I knew it would be immediate. And you know, is there ever a time for him to listen?

Well, that wasn't the original immediate reaction. The original—

No, that one was actually much nicer than he alluded to.

Yes, because— Originally, what he said was, and I quote from his Twitter, "This is the epitome of Christmas arriving early. The NABJ wants to call folks out?

Fine.

You had your turn.

Now mine is coming. And make no mistake, I'm coming. Let's see who really deserves a thumbs down award when it comes to the black community after I say my peace." And he spelled peace P-E-A-C-E instead of P-I-E-C-E. Oh no. Remember, NABJ, you asked for it. I've shut my mouth for years now. Y'all started something.

So here is a little bit more of Stephen A. Greg. This is Stephen A. on Hannity. Oh, this is on Fox News.

Great black platform.

But a journalistic organization that's supposed to— its foundation is supposed to be based on objectivity and most importantly, uplifting African-Americans within the journalism industry. Well, excuse me, what have I accomplished in my career? Where am I sitting at right now? On September 29th, I'm about to be inducted into the Broadcasting Cable Hall of Fame. I've established myself as one of those people in this industry, but I'm not a Hall of Famer for the NABJ. I brought my national television show First Take from ESPN in concert with ESPN and the great bosses that I have. We brought First Take, a nationally televised show, every weekday morning from 10 a.m. to 12 noon on ESPN. We brought it to the NABJ conference. When have you seen a nationally televised show broadcasting live from a journalism convention. I did it the last 2 years in Chicago and Cleveland respectively, but I don't show up this year and all of a sudden I receive a thumbs down award? I think it's utterly ridiculous, and I called them on it.

Oh wow, so he thinks this is the NABJ being petty, they're angry.

Yeah, which is— all right, so all he's done in response is not actually tackle the criticism, it's just list that he has sisters and a mother and that he's—

and a lady.

And, and that he's shown up at the NABJ before and he's done, and he's going to be a Hall of Famer and he's got a big show, and he never actually tackles the criticism that is levied against him. Which again, I did see other clips where it seemed as though this affected him because I kind of feel bad for him. These are his peers.

No, I saw that, I was like, damn, this is pretty, pretty strong from like a national association, like a Jewish writers were to come out and say that like, I'm super disrespectful to Jewish people, I don't know, I wouldn't like that.

If I were in a similar position, I'd be— I'd probably not be super defensive, or I'd actually tout like what I've done in defense of that one.

He's not building on that.

I understand that, which is weird because I do think if there's ever a time to listen, to have a stinging criticism meet you, and to try to learn from it and put that message across, it's when your peers do that. I would say something along the lines of, I look forward to having more of a discourse with the NABJ and finding out where I've gone wrong. I disagree with that.

I—

this was— it's— that's admitting guilt though, and admitting fault. Why would you do that? You would never do that. But to just go back, like your backup is against the wall and you're going to come out fighting and you're going to go on Hannity of all places talking about objectivity, going on Fox News. I just— again, you're not helping.

The optics of that are not great. You're right.

Yeah, if I were to dissect an alleged unobjectivity of the black community, you're gonna really have to sit me down and explain to me how the platform for that is Fox News.

Right, but Stephen A knows that, so why does that happen?

These are how the thumbs downs happen. That's my point, right? Like, he didn't go on a black platform, or even a platform that is not so very clearly—

He went somewhere that he knew he'd be comfortable speaking about this.

Do you guys imagine MSNBC and CNN asked him and he said no? I imagine he only got asked.

He used to appear—

I'm just saying though, like, I would be surprised if those places asked him and he said no.

It's not about— no, he's got to go. The idea is that those guys called, maybe this one, you're like, no, no, I'm just, I'm just going to talk about them on my show. You guys can run the clip from my show if you want, but I'm not gonna— like, the, the acceptance of that platform, right? Again, it's, it's— we know what they're about over there. There's no one's under any kind of false pretenses that this is an organization that looks upon the Black community favorably.

Yeah, I know, but, but if, if he does run for high office someday, it doesn't hurt him to chum up the Fox a little bit and, and because he's got to get more than this vote and that vote.

He's—

what do you mean it doesn't hurt him? He just got a thumbs down.

But, but Greg, to answer your question, is that again, his political ambitions, everything that he has been framing himself in, is as someone who wants to lean right, right? That's— so from that aspect, you're right. Yes, if I knew I was going to run for president and I wanna run as a Democrat— excuse me, as a Republican, then yeah, I'm gonna chum up with this news outlet because most of their voters over there watch that station.

You know what I wanted to hear from Stephen A.? I wanted to hear one exa— refute one example of the criticism.

Okay?

I said—

It's just resume listing because it's not the first time that this is— that he's talked about this. I've seen him talk about this stuff, particularly when the Kerry Champion and Jemele Hill criticisms came out. I think it was some time ago, and he just did resume lists.

He just felt betrayed by that.

Yeah, I got you a job. He's not listening to the room.

That's exactly right, because he said that he platformed Kerry Champion as host of First Take. So I found that really unfair.

Okay, but what'd you say about Michelle Obama? And if it got you in trouble, explain that. That's all I wanted from him.

To be fair, everything he did last summer, that resume listing and all that, Did not include "I have a lady." That changes things, guys.

Who else has won this thumbs down award?

Uh, so, well, he said something like, "Only 4 people have ever gotten it." Conflicting reports because I did see a clip where he highlighted just 4, but I could have sworn I saw the original clip that had several people in Succession, uh, receive a thumbs down. Roy, can you clear that up? I like Succession.

Yeah, I, I asked the former president of the NABJ, Greg Lee, to send me a list. Thank you to him for sending this. Since 1989, they have given this award 45 times, 10 to people. There's usually people in institutions. Not one of them is Jason Whitlock.

Wow.

That I'd be pissed off if I were him.

That's what I'm—

that's— I would go on every platform like, how dare you?

Any thumbs up awards or how dare you?

That's usually to salute the excellence.

Chris, let me ask you something. Do you think Jason Whitlock has a lady?

You think that fat bastard has a lady?