Tag: First Take

"To my talented colleagues, thank you. The relationships and experiences will stay with me long after this chapter closes."

"They force you to take topics. That's not real journalism. That's not real conversation. You don't have no respect for the ability of other people to think on their feet that you're making people say something."

"For him to speak so insensitively about a topic like mental health the way he did. Why isn't he suspended?"

"None of them are going to say a damn thing about it. They're all afraid if I go after Stephen A. [Smith], he'll have my job. If I go after him, he'll get me fired. What a shame that is."

"The biggest regret that I have for all of this is the fact that it may have given people that wanted to open the door to seek help a reason to pause and hesitate and not do so."

"Across ESPN's studio programming, average September viewership rose 7% compared with last year."

"Four games in to the 2026 season, a dude that has been in the league forever sits back and says, "I need to focus on my mental health and as an offensive tackle." There's no way [if] you're undefeated [or] winning football games. Everybody's got Super Bowl in their sights. You [don't] walk away."

"PTI has always chosen to be different from everything else on ESPN, dating back to the moment it first hit the airwaves. It has continued to resist changing its core formula despite trends within the industry and within the network itself. So, why change now?"

"A lot of them [ESPN executives] don't even know PTI exists. We're not from Bristol. We weren't created by Bristol. We're not of the ESPN culture."

"Exact dates in which Smith appears on Monday Night Countdown are unknown."