First Take pundit Stephen A. Smith has made trolling the Dallas Cowboys one of his calling cards, which hasn’t always been well received by 105.3 The Fan hosts Shan Shariff and R.J. Choppy.
The two sides were able to mend fences recently, with Smith appearing on Shan & RJ twice in recent weeks. However, the Dallas morning show feels as if Smith misrepresented one of their recent discussions.
Earlier this week on First Take, Smith claimed the show essentially groveled at his feet for him to return to the program should the Cowboys make the NFC Championship Game.
“That’s not what happened! I thought he was going to bring up the bet! I thought he was gonna say ‘I was gonna give these jokers an opportunity to come on First Take, show their ugly mugs and ugly faces, and have dinner at the Super Bowl in Arizona’,” Shariff said in his best Stephen A. Smith impersonation.
The bet alluded to by Shariff was in regards to Smith’s insinuation that if the Cowboys lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Wild Card round, head coach Mike McCarthy would be fired.
Shan & RJ were adamant that would not happen. The show offered to take Smith and former Cowboy Michael Irvin out to a nice dinner during Super Bowl week should McCarthy be fired. But if the franchise lost the game and McCarthy wasn’t fired, the show wanted a spot at the First Take debate desk, which Smith said they “weren’t worthy” of.
“That’s what we discussed. We didn’t say ‘Will you please come back on if they make the Conference Finals? Please come back on’, making us sound like we were begging and pathetic,” Shariff argued. “We set up the parameters of a bet!”
However, Smith told the First Take audience that he told the show to prepare for a loss, claiming Shan & RJ “had the audacity” to ask if he would return to the program “when the Cowboys make the Conference Championship Game”.
Ultimately, the Cowboys were eliminated in the NFC Divisional Round in a 19-12 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
