Stephen A. Smith Rips Curt Schilling, Challenges Former Pitcher To Debate

Curt Schilling took a few parting shots at ESPN on his way out the door, and Stephen A. Smith is hitting right back.

ESPN fired the former Boston Red Sox pitcher in April after he shared an anti-transgender meme on Facebook. Schilling didn’t hide his contempt for the network and some of its analysts afterward, either, as he said ESPN has “some of the biggest racists” in sports media.

Stephen A. Smith was one of the people Schilling mentioned by name, bringing up comments the “First Take” personality made about the Washington Redskins and how they treated Robert Griffin III.

And now Smith has responded.

“What I was lamenting was the treatment of Jay Gruden and how specific he was in dissecting Robert Griffin III, compared to how celebratory he was about Kirk Cousins,” Smith recently said on SiriusXM “Mad Dog Radio,” via the New York Daily News. “At no time did I imply or state that is why RGIII wasn’t playing because he is black. That is a lie.”

That wasn’t all Smith had to say. Far from it.

“Let me speak up on behalf of ESPN when I say this to Curt Schilling: … You are gone not because you have conservative views instead of liberal views. Your ass is gone because you did not want to listen,” Smith said. “ESPN tells me to shut up, they’re my employer whether I like it or not. If I want to keep my job, I’ve got to shut the hell up.”

It sounds like we need to hear these two debate. Are you in, Stephen A.?

“You (Schilling) want to sit here and have a debate about what really went on?” Smith said. “Name the time and place and I’ll show up, with the permission of ESPN — of course. I guess listening to my boss makes me a bad guy. Well guess what? I’d rather be bad than stupid.”

There’s probably a good chance ESPN wouldn’t give the green light for that debate, but it certainly would be entertaining.

Thumbnail photo via Tim Fuller/USA TODAY Sports Images