Stephen A. Smith has never been shy about his ambitions. Maybe he isn’t always clear on exactly what it is that is most important for him to accomplish, but he has never hidden the fact that he wants his career to be bigger than sports and ESPN. It’s why he has a recurring role on General Hospital, why he takes every opportunity offered to step in for Jimmy Kimmel, and why he pops up on Sean Hannity’s FOX News show when asked.
ESPN knows that it cannot scratch all of Smith’s professional itches. That is why the network gave him the green light to work with Audacy and launch his podcast K[no]w Mercy. It is the podcast that, to me, gives us the clearest insight to where Stephen A. Smith is headed. The evidence is pretty clear the he is planning to run for office.
What office? I don’t know.
Can he win? Irrelevant.
Would he be good at governing? No, because no one is. Everything about government is patently absurd and we would almost certainly be better off without it, but that is a longer column for a different day…likely on a different website that my boss doesn’t need to know about.
Stephen A. Smith isn’t just sharing his opinions on his podcast. He is making his positions known. He is stepping into the conversations that may be third rails at the dinner table, but are part of everyday life in the political sphere.
He talked with Clay Travis this week about problems with “woke culture.” Recent episodes have seen him weigh in on marijuana policy, the national security threats posed by TikTok and gun violence. Extremist politicians like Ron DeSantis and Marjorie Taylor Green are one of his favorite topics. He could fill an hour everyday for a month just talking about Donald Trump.
It’s not just K[no]w Mercy either. He is ready to have these conversations with anyone that will give him a platform. Look at how he went out of his way to bring up trans athletes and gender identity issues with The New York Times. Look at his comments on HBO’s Game Theory about Hannity and his belief that the Black community agrees with the conservative pundit’s points more than many will admit.
What office does Stephen A. Smith want? When will he make his move? I cannot answer those questions. He could announce that he is throwing his hat in the ring for a 2024 presidential nomination tomorrow or he could wait until 2025 and decide to be a part of New York City’s mayoral election. Neither one would surprise me. Remember though, that Paul Finebaum did ask Smith directly about the White House last August.
What party’s nomination would he be chasing? Well, my gut says the Democrats’, but his eagerness to engage in the “woke culture debate” and his insistence that he doesn’t have to agree with the Black community on everything, tell me he is going for a little more of a purple appeal.
My column is simply here to point out that he is laying the ground work and already talking like he has winning a general election in mind.
Smith is convinced he can be a bridge builder. Those comments about Sean Hannity are a pretty good example. So is the way he talked about the backlash to his conversation with Travis.
Maybe Awful Announcing’s Ben Koo is right and ESPN employees view that conversation as evidence that Stephen A. Smith is a bad teammate. But, I would just like to quote Obi-Wan Kenobi here: “Many of the truths that we cling to depend on our viewpoint.” If ESPN is your dream job, then the network’s biggest star giving someone that built his career on attacking the network and its talent the time of day is going to seem like an unforgivable sin.
Smith has larger goals and political ambitions though. Why would he care about people at work talking shit? To win a general election, he has to find at least some support among the Clay Travis fanbase.
It is also interesting to me that Smith is aware of what work he needs to do. In the aforementioned New York Times interview, he dug his heels in defending his work as a professional debater, insisting that “I don’t play that game” when asked if his arguments are ever insincere.
Smith not only bit back at Dan Le Batard’s insistence that he and former co-host Skip Bayless ruined sports television during an episode of Le Batard’s South Beach Sessions podcast. He delayed his vacation by a day to record a special episode of K[no]w Mercy calling out Le Batard and listing all of his own accomplishments prior to First Take turning him into a household name.
I want to be perfectly clear here. If you have not read the stuff I have written about Smith in the past, you may not know that I have a lot of respect for him and think he is incredibly good at what he does. I do not think he is a fool or a clown, but it is clear a lot of other people do. Just look at what others at this very site have written about him.
Stephen A. Smith may have a very healthy ego, but I don’t think he thinks everyone loves him or thinks he’s genius. Are his protests about Le Batard’s comments or the Times’ questions aimed directly at the people that don’t think he is worth taking seriously? I don’t know, but I am sure he knows those people may hear or read them and he wants them to know that he is ready to prove them wrong.
My theory has been floated by a number of people both inside and outside the industry. Every one of them say they see my point when I lay out the evidence, but no one has any insight or information to offer. If Stephen A. Smith has concrete plans for a political career, he is either keeping them to himself or only sharing them with a very tight circle of people he trusts.
Much like Ariel in The Little Mermaid, “I don’t know when. I don’t know how.” But I know that Stephen A. Smith thinks he is destined for bigger things. He has conviction and charisma to spare. If Americans will elect a reality TV star and a b-movie actor president, if one US state will send a professional wrestler to the governor’s mansion and Stuart Smalley to congress, why is it absurd for Stephen A. Smith to think America is ready to embrace debate and put him in office?
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
