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Michelle Beadle has reignited her feud with Stephen A. Smith and said she's 'praying' on his downfall after the ESPN host signed a controversial sponsorship deal. Earlier in the week, Smith was named as a brand ambassador for Papaya - a mobile games company - ahead of the World Solitaire Championship (WGC) in February. The deal comes five months after Smith was caught playing solitaire on his phone during the NBA Finals in June, which went viral on social media. While some fans have seen the humor in the deal, Beadle, who previously worked at ESPN until 2019 and has clashed with Smith multiple times, called the deal 'gross'. Her comments come amid Papaya's federal lawsuit, where they are accused of falsely marketing 'games of skill' that were allegedly rigged, according to reports. Speaking on the 'Beadle and Decker' podcast, she said: 'It's not secret how I feel about that human. I'm not a religious person, but I pray for the downfall. I really do. 'It's gross, man. You gotta have principles in this thing,' Beadle continued. 'ESPN pays him a gazillion dollars to get a lot of stuff wrong and yell. He gets caught playing solitaire during the NBA freaking Finals, the thing he's an expert in. 'He made you look like fools for handing him a blank check in the first place, because doesn't even give a s*** about the stuff that he's paid a gazillion dollars to talk about. 'Now he's turning around and turning that into a money-making opportunity… and it looks like a fraudulent c*** business to begin with.' Smith was named as an official ambassador for Papaya Gaming on Monday afternoon and, to mark the occasion, the ESPN host shared an AI-generated ad on social media. The advert parodied Smith's viral moment during the NBA finals before going on to promote the World Solitaire Championship that will take place in early 2026. Meanwhile, in documents obtained by Front Office Sports, the lawsuit alleges that Papaya used bots 'masquerading as human players' in games where human players had money on the line. The company have filed counterclaims. Back in July, Beadle and her co-host Cody Decker were fired by Sirius XM, a day after she made a passionate on-air rant about arch enemy Smith taking her job. 'Yeah so the cat's out of the bag, I guess we're talking about it,' Beadle told her audience. 'We weren't supposed to, just as a heads up.' Although they knew they were on their way out, Beadle and Decker didn't know they were being replaced by Smith until his interview with Howard Stern earlier in the day. 'We were only given a few hours' notice, but we weren't told any details, we were promised that no details would be released,' she said. 'We didn't even know who was taking our place in the lineup, just that it was going to be announced that a new show was being added. 'Unbeknownst to us, "The Hollywood Reporter," of course, had all the details,' Beadle continued, referring to an article about Smith's interview with Stern. 'So it was a little embarrassing, I'm not going to lie'. Her feud with Smith goes back to 2014, when she ripped Stephen A. Smith for comments about NFL great Ray Rice's domestic violence assault, where he suggested women 'provoke' being hit. Beadle wrote on X: 'So I was just forced to watch this morning’s First Take. A) I’ll never feel clean again B) I’m now aware that I can provoke my own beating.' Smith was suspended for a week by ESPN and apologized for his remarks.
