People Paid To Talk About Sports Don't Actually Know Anything About Sports

People who talk about sports for a living tend not to know much about them.

Last Friday, Stephen A. Smith argued that the most underrated storyline of the NFL playoffs was the excellence of Patriots defensive coordinator Terrell Williams.

"There’s a defense that Jarrett Stidham has to go up against," Smith said. "There is a brother coaching that defense, Terrell Williams. We ain’t mention him all year long. Reunited with Mike Vrabel. This man has done a helluva job with a defense that’s ranked top five in the National Football League, okay, so we going to give brothers credit on this show. And that brother’s doing his thing."

The problem: Williams has not coached the Patriots' defense since Week 2, when he stepped away from the team following a prostate cancer diagnosis. Inside linebackers coach Zak Kuhr has handled the day-to-day coaching and play calling of the defense for nearly the entire season.

ESPN deleted the segment from X shortly after posting it. Smith later tried to dismiss the mistake by claiming it "didn’t matter" because he shares the set with "experts like Ryan Clark and Cam Newton."

His explanation made no sense.

For one, Smith would have no way of knowing how often Williams communicates with other Patriots' coaches. More importantly, Smith did not credit Williams for offering occasional strategic input. He praised him for actively coaching the defense.

Smith also no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt, as he repeatedly makes these types of mistakes.

Last April, Smith praised guard Quentin Grimes for his performance with the New York Knicks the night before. However, Grimes did not play in the game. The Knicks traded him to the Detroit Pistons months earlier.

In another instance, Smith identified Hunter Henry and Derrick Johnson as the keys to the game before a primetime matchup between the Chargers and Chiefs. Neither player was on an active roster at the time, or had been for most of the season.

Despite this pattern, ESPN re-signed Stephen A. Smith in May to a five-year, $100 million contract. That is an extraordinary amount of money for someone who routinely fails to do basic research on the topics he is paid to cover.

Smith also pointed to the "experts" around him as a form of insulation against criticism. On that same episode, Cam Newton claimed that the Notre Dame football program has "not been relevant in years." Moderator Shae Cornetter had to remind him that Notre Dame played in the National Championship just one season earlier.

Newton appeared confused:

The problem extends beyond "First Take."

Last week, former ESPN host Bomani Jones posted a rant arguing that Matthew Stafford must win a Super Bowl to earn Hall of Fame consideration. The claim was quite bizarre. Stafford ranks among the top seven quarterbacks in most all-time passing categories. He also already won a Super Bowl just a few seasons ago – the latter of which Jones appeared unaware.

To be fair, Jones rarely demonstrates familiarity with the on-field product. Super Bowl LVI featured two white quarterbacks and white head coaches, offering his ilk little material for their usual commentary.

Rachel Lindsay used to work at ESPN and now works for Bill Simmons at The Ringer. After Josh Allen lost to the Denver Broncos, she criticized him by claiming he had a clear path to winning the AFC because he would not have to face Lamar Jackson, a quarterback she said Allen "can’t get past" in the playoffs.

With all due respect to Lindsay, Allen is 2-0 against Jackson in the postseason and a singularly better playoff quarterback.

We understand that sports talk has always relied on exaggeration and provocation. That is not new. However, the likes of Skip Bayless and Jim Rome made outrageous arguments for attention. They knew what they were doing. Today, sports commentators are simply uninformed. Worse, they take no shame in it.

Stephen A. Smith stands out in this regard. During the NBA Finals, a fan photographed him playing solitaire on his phone instead of watching the game in front of him. The image matched his approach. Smith, like so many others, treats himself as more important than the games and athletes he covers.

Thus, the industry’s fixation on the skin colors of Josh Allen, Caitlin Clark, and Nikola Jokic. Those discussions require no understanding of schemes, rosters, or matchups. They allow commentators to sound authoritative without doing the work.

The formula is simple. Accuse voters, fans, or media members of favoring white players and disrespecting black players. Accuracy becomes optional.

The state of the industry as a whole may explain why "PTI" remains the most-watched sports show on television more than 20 years after its debut. Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser watch the games. They prepare. They care about the product. They do not use sports as a backdrop for ideological performance.

Fans recognize when hosts speak performatively about games they did not watch and players they barely know. Sports commentators today are not experts. They are casuals.

And industry should stop taking these people seriously. They are not serious people. Many of them resent covering sports but lack the knowledge or credibility to cover anything else.