Even Stephen A. Smith, one of the world’s most recognizable and widely-followed sports media personalities, feels as though he may be on borrowed time at ESPN.
Last Friday, ESPN conducted a long series of employee cuts. This included 27-year veteran Suzy Kolber, NBA analyst/color commentator Jeff Van Gundy, Smith’s former “First Take” co-host Max Kellerman, NFL draft analyst Todd McShay and other former star athletes such as Jalen Rose, Matt Hasselbeck and Steve Young.
During the latest edition of The Stephen A. Smith Show (h/t Armando Tinoco of Deadline), Smith acknowledged that he too could potentially lose his job at the Worldwide Leader in Sports:
“ESPN laid off about 20 members of its on-air talent…friends of mine, actually, definitely respected colleagues who’d done a phenomenal job and deserved better. It’s not Disney or ESPN that they deserved better from, they deserved better than the times we’re living in…
If we’re going to be real about it, let’s deal with reality. This ain’t the end, more is coming. And yes, ladies and gentlemen, I could be next.”
Back in February, Disney CEO Bob Iger warned that the company would be cutting 7,000 jobs as a way to save billions of dollars. This included letting go of many high-profile talents at ESPN, and ultimately, it’s become obvious that nobody there is safe long-term.
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Smith, who turns 56 years of age in October, joined ESPN back in 2003. He emerged as a well-known sports personality after co-hosting “First Take” with Skip Bayless, who was on the program from 2007 to ’06.
After Bayless left for FOX Sports in 2016, Smith continued to co-host the show with the aforementioned Kellerman.
Smith continues to lead “First Take”, which features a variety of different guests and co-hosts. If ESPN were to decide to move on from Smith, one can only assume that it wouldn’t be long until he found another prominent position elsewhere.
