Love him or hate him, you’ll be seeing more of Stephen A. Smith on .
Smith made his debut on last night on ESPN‘s broadcast of the Baltimore Ravens-Detroit Lions matchup wearing a chartreuse suit and bringing his usual swagger to the proceedings. Host Scott Van Pelt and Jason Kelce welcomed him to Monday Night Countdown, but a number of viewers were less enthusiastic about seeing the historically more NBA-minded Smith on the show.
Turns out, they’re in for more — potentially a lot more — of the outspoken Smith.
“I’m going to be doing at least tree Monday Night Football games this year,” he told Font Office Sports recently.
“Those are just the three I know about. Knowing them at ESPN, they’ll want more,” a confident-sounding Smith said at the outlet’s Tuned In Summit. “They’ll certainly want more of me on NBA Countdown. And so who knows? I mean, I’m doing First Take. But it’s ESPN. They know whatever they need me for – SportsCenter, NBA Countdown, NFL Countdown – it doesn’t matter. Whatever’s going to help make the network successful. Jimmy Pitaro, Burke Magnus, Dave Roberts, Mike McQuade. They know me. They know I’ll do whatever they ask.”
The other two Monday nights Countdown viewers can expect to see Smith include November 3, when he’ll be on the telecast as the Arizona Cardinals visit Smith’s archenemies, the Dallas Cowboys. He’ll also be on to see the Philadelphia Eagles take on the Los Angeles Chargers on December 8.
With ESPN and sports television in general heavying up of late on A list hot-takers like Smith, his new ESPN cohort Pat McAfee and Fox Sports’ new star Dave Portnoy, it’s a decent bet viewers will be seeing even more of Stephen A. on MNF. In his words, “They’ll want more.”
Pitaro was asked about Smith and MNF in May, before the analyst’s three-game stint was announced. The ESPN president sounded bullish. After all, he’s not paying the First Take host $100M over five years for nothing.
“We are very open to Stephen getting more involved on the NFL,” said Pitaro. “We know that the league really likes Stephen.”