Stephen A. Smith Won't Stay Comfortable

I keep hearing Stephen A. Smith outside the sports window.

Stephen A. Smith is the loud voice on ESPN’s First Take. He started as a newspaper writer covering high school and pro sports in New York and Philadelphia, then moved into radio and television. He has two daughters. He calls himself an independent and has spent more of the last couple of years talking about politics, including whether he would run.

He appears on Bill O’Reilly’s We’ll Do It Live podcast. [VIDEO]

They covered sports media that will not criticize players because the leagues do not want it. Smith said he did not get into the business to be comfortable. They also went into race and the black vote. Smith said one party has been given a license to take black votes for granted and the other a license to ignore them. They touched on what keeps the two sides from hearing each other.

This was certainly a good talk. To be honest, it throws me off that a sports guy has become a commentator on political and social issues. I do think he’s often been right about the Democrat Party taking Black voters for granted. I think he might be right on a lot of racial issues.

I trailed off before the interesting discussion over whether Bill O’Reilly should be able to comment on issues that relate to Black Americans. Especially the part about Black youth being deprived of responsible parents, and the idea that O’Reilly, or anyone else, may not be able to relate to the Black experience. That was the part worth sitting with.