Stephen A. Smith and Paul Finebaum gave us a little extra drama this week on ESPN’s First Take, and for once, it wasn’t even about football directly; it was about how people talk about football.
The subject was Lane Kiffin, and the noise around him possibly looking at other jobs while Ole Miss is still in the mix for a playoff run. Finebaum said it’s a distraction. Stephen A. said, “Hold on a second,” and then dropped the hammer.
Finebaum’s take was that Kiffin’s flirting with other jobs, whether real or speculative, sends the wrong message to his team. Classic Finebaum stuff. But Stephen A. wasn’t having it. He reminded Paul, very publicly, that not long ago he went on air and said he might run for Senate if the opportunity felt right. So what’s the difference?
“You love what you do, you love ESPN, but you also said you’d be open to leaving for something else,” Stephen A. pointed out. “Why is it different when Kiffin does the same thing?”
That’s the kind of check you don’t see often on national TV, especially not between two high-profile guys on the same network. But it hit the mark. It wasn’t hostile. It wasn’t over the top. It was just honest. And that made it sting a little more.
To be fair, both guys had a point. Kiffin is in the middle of a high-stakes season. If Ole Miss is trying to make the playoff, distractions don’t help. But pretending coaches and media figures don’t explore better situations is just fake. We all do it, and Finebaum literally said as much not long ago. That’s where Stephen A. found his angle, and he stuck with it.
This wasn’t some groundbreaking TV moment, but it did pull back the curtain a little bit. Guys like Finebaum dish out hot takes every day, but sometimes they need to eat a spoonful of medicine.
At the end of the day, Lane Kiffin’s going to do what Lane Kiffin does. The same way Paul Finebaum will say what he wants, and Stephen A. will call it out if it doesn’t track. That’s why someone out there is watching the show, right?
