Stephen A. Smith Slams Eagles Over Jalen Hurts Medical Handling

Craig Carton (0:00)

You know, 30 some odd years ago, when I was a young lad in Philadelphia, it was a random Wednesday night. My radio partner at WIP was a guy named Gary Cobb, he went by G Cobb. And G Cobb had a weekly television show called G Cobb Show.

Pretty good day, right?

Chris McMonigle (0:17)

Makes sense.

Craig Carton (0:18)

And every now and then, me and this young, intrepid reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer covering John Cheney and the Temple Owls would chop it up. His name was Steve Smith.

Many years later, 30 years later, he's now Stephen A. Smith. Added an initial, lengthened his name. I'm just Craig Carton still. And he's an old friend and I'm a fan still. And he joins us here on the radio tape because as you might know, WFN has joined Sirius XM radio.

I'm not sure what channel we're on, but I know Ron's Sirius XM. There you go, channel 94 And my main man Stephen A. Smith has a few minutes and it was a very busy schedule to join us this afternoon. Stephen it's Craig and Big Mac. How you been buddy?

Stephen A. Smith (1:08)

Craig, Big Mac, what's up? Craig, it's been a long time, man, but stop lying to the public. I've always been Stephen A. I have not changed my name. My byline was that way since I was in college. That is absolutely not true. But other than that, you're telling the truth, man. It's good to see you. It's been a long time, my brother.

Craig Carton (1:23)

It has been a very, very long time. Great to see you and lots to talk about.

Stephen A. Smith (1:27)

Big Mac, good to see you, bro.

Chris McMonigle (1:27)

Yeah, thank you, Stephen.

Craig Carton (1:28)

Let me just ask you real quick on the Philly thing. I think the NFL and the Eagles have a lot of explaining to do with this Jalen Hurts situation. I bring up Philly because obviously you covered the Eagles for a long time. You have filled up your roots, the Inquirer and all that. And I think again, maybe we don't know all the facts yet, but if what I've read is what's factual, what they did to Jalen Hurts is completely unacceptable.

Stephen A. Smith (1:52)

Well, I would say the Eagles more so than the National Football League.

The National Football League is over there trying to promote the game internationally. You're anticipating that the Eagles will be responsible enough to look out for their own star quarterback. He's in a hospital until 4 AM according to reports. He's instructed not to sleep at all through the night.

You're the Philadelphia Eagles and somehow he's clear to play in London, England by doctors and without any sleep whatsoever. You put him on a football field against the Jacksonville Jaguars. First of all, against anybody. Because obviously the issue was blood clots. We didn't know at that particular moment in time, in all likelihood is that they didn't know that the blood clots had spread to his lungs. But anytime you hear blood clots, you know that that's a serious enough issue. Even in the event that he's cleared by doctors, you still want to take precautionary measures to make sure, God forbid, that something doesn't happen to him on the football field, because this is a violent sport. It's not just a place where you're exerting a level of physical activity in terms of your cardio, but it's like a car crash collision. You're getting hit, and when something like that is what's happening, and you put Jalen Hurts out on the football field, I think Howie Roseman has something to explain. I think Nick Sirianni has something to explain, more so than the league office, who's counting on their players, on their teams, to look out for their own dag-gone players.

Craig Carton (3:19)

Yeah, I feel bad for Jalen Hurts. He's a great guy, a great competitor, but having not slept, having the blood clots, then putting him on a plane for seven hours back from London to Philadelphia, there's a lot of people that have a lot of explaining to, because the scariest thing about this, and look, we're New Yorkers, we root against Philadelphia, obviously. We want the Eagles to lose a lot of games, although I'm not a giant fan, I'm a Jet fan. But the reality is that, from what I've now post, read about this and pulmonary embolisms and all that stuff that I don't claim to be an expert on, he literally could have died.

Chris McMonigle (3:51)

Like, that's not hyperbole.

Craig Carton (3:53)

The man could have died.

Stephen A. Smith (3:55)