Stephen A Smith MOCKS Lane Johnson Retirement, EMBARRASSES ESPN, Then Plays Victim | Ep 1256

Jason Whitlock (0:00)

This is going to be another one of those shows where you need to call your friends, family, and say, I'm gonna be busy for the next hour. Whitlock has snapped again.

I'm going to talk about things in a way that no one else in the media will talk about. I'm going to talk about Stephen A Smith and his latest batch of apologies. There have now been two apologies over his comments about Lane Johnson yesterday. I'm going to unpack it in the rawest way possible, in the most honest way possible, so that you fully understand the significance of the retardation of Stephen A. Smith and ESPN's promotion of Stephen A. Smith's retardation. And so buckle up. This is going to be a terrific show. I will, at the back end of the show, I'm going to bring Charles Scapp and Maurice in, and we'll talk about Caitlin Clark's exit interview. But that's going to take me a little bit of time because I have to talk about Stephen A. Smith and the stupidity that we witnessed and how it's planned, organized, it's orchestrated stupidity. He's doing exactly what ESPN wants him to do. So let's start with a foundational piece of what Stephen A. Smith did yesterday. That triggered all the backlash and all the attention. Then we'll go through his apologies. But I just want to start from a foundation of what happened. Lane Johnson, six-time pro bowler, key offensive tackle for the Philadelphia Eagles over the last decade. Terrific player for the Philadelphia Eagles.

He, I think 14 years, he decides at the beginning of this week that he's going to retire, that he's dealing with some mental anguish, some mental health issues, and he's going to step away from football. The guy's put 14 years in. He's one of the most respected players in the National Football League.

He's a warrior. He's someone that, again, everybody in football has a great deal of respect for.

Stephen A Smith is not a part of football, so he doesn't have that respect. And so here's what he said on ESPN yesterday in reaction to Lane Johnson, one of the most respected football players in the NFL today, a warrior. Someone that has given his all to the Philadelphia Eagles. Here's what Stephen A Smith had to say yesterday.

Stephen A. Smith (3:07)

A running game that was virtually non-impressive, at the very least to begin with. And now Saquon Barkley got a hamstring injury, a passing game that wasn't that great to begin with. You lost AJ Brown to Vonte Smith. Now he gets injured. Nine starters. You finish the game without. And now the brother sat up there, one of the all-time greats of our festival. What did he do, Shaq? What did he do, Jordan? He went like this. You know what? I'm going to call it quits. Now he calls it quits. Not fourth season. Not off season. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. After being subjected to this, he said, life is a little bit too short. I need to focus. What did he say? His mental health. Am I making it up? No, you're right. Did he say that? I'm just being short. Four games in. To the 20, 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, large and no is bad. There's no way you're undefeated, you're winning football games, you're thriving. Everybody's got Super Bowl in their sights. You walk away, you walk away because it's a very, very, very bad situation.

And it doesn't look to be getting any better. And this brother say, hey, my life matters. It's time.

I'm going to call it quits. My mental health, my mental.

Lord, that's trouble for the Philadelphia Eagles. And everybody in the city of brotherly love knows it.

Jason Whitlock (4:43)

ESPN has prioritized Stephen A Smith's personality, his clown act, his stick. And so when actual news happens, when something goes wrong with one of the most respected athletes in professional sports, Stephen A doesn't have an on off switch for his clown stick that has been rewarded and celebrated and held out as, hey, particularly for anybody black in sports media, play the clown, be like Stephen A Smith. You too can be rewarded millions of dollars if you will lean into buffoonish clown reaction. You got to remember, Stephen A Smith was allegedly a journalist in Philadelphia for a number of years. So the Philadelphia Eagles are an organization he should be familiar with. The players on the Philadelphia Eagles, the reputation of the players on the Philadelphia Eagles, should be an organization and a group of people that he is familiar with.