DALLAS — ESPN’s "First Take" debate television show takes over The Star in Frisco on Thursday morning. The Cowboys will have their inaugural kickoff event with players and coaches walking the Blue Carpet in the Tostitos Championship Plaza on Thursday evening.
The popular ESPN show with Stephen A. Smith and Molly Qerim starting at 10 a.m. will be live from the Ford Center at The Star. Fans are welcome to attend the event that will also have Hall of Fame wide receiver Michael Irvin on set along with Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones.
The Dallas Morning News spent time with Smith, talking about First Take, why he gets on Cowboys fans, his love for Jerry Jones and his new book, "Straight Shooter," that will be released in January.
— Q: Everyone in North Texas thinks you’re a closet Cowboys fan.
— A: That’s a damn lie. That’s a damn lie. That is not true. I am not a Cowboys fan. I don’t hate the Cowboys, I can’t stand their fans, but it’s all love. What I mean by that is just strictly from a fun basis. You know, how we growing up and stuff like that you hate a particular team or you hate their fans and they get on your nerves. That’s all it is. It’s nothing. I mean it’s all in fun. That’s why I can come down there and do the show and have a blast because I love laughing at them when they’re upset because Dallas Cowboy fans, the world over, run around with their nose up, it doesn’t matter. They can lose. They can go 1-15. I give this quote all the time, they can go 1-15 and the season ends on January 5th at 7:00; by 7:15 they’re like “You know, we can win the Super Bowl next year, right?” This is what they do with it. They don’t take any time to smell the stench of one season and another that they don’t get it done. They’re always OK. You know, they’re always walking around living off the ‘90s and the ‘70s. This is what they do. So, Cowboy fans get on my nerves. The Cowboys don’t get on my nerves. I’ve always loved Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith and Troy Aikman. I’ve always loved those guys, always, well, no problem. Instead, it’s their damn fans that get on my nerves and I love Jerry Jones. Absolutely love Jerry Jones, that’s my guy. We hung out one time at a Super Bowl party and had a blast.
— Q: What is it about Jerry — how he resonates with a lot of people?
— A: A couple of things. First of all, I don’t think he resonates in a bad way with people. I think that he is a guy that is an elite business mind. He’s unapologetic about things being about his business and his bottom line. He’s taken the Cowboy brand to another level. None of us can deny that and he’s an overall incredibly pleasant person that seems to have a good soul. I know numerous players who rave about things he has done for them off the field of play. That never gets publicized or talked about. I never forget, we had this up-front (meeting) for ESPN and Disney and all of this stuff and Jerry Jones was there. I don’t know if it was as presenter or whatever. And I met him and people were nervous about he and I running into each other because I’m always critical of the Cowboys. I walked up to say hello and Jerry introduced himself to me and he said, “My buddy.” Gave me a hug. And he said, “It don’t matter what you say as long as you talking about my Cowboys.” We had a great laugh and that was the end of that. And we met up a few months later at a Super Bowl party. Jerry and I were there, and his son Stephen was there, a great guy. We sat up there laughing, people clicking pictures of us and the whole bit and we’re just having an absolute blast laughing and having a good time. And his wife, Mrs. Jones, is like, “I didn’t like you getting on my [Cowboys]. I didn’t realize you were such a nice young man.” They couldn’t have been nicer, sweeter, the whole bit. So I love the Joneses, and Jerry and Stephen still owe me a drink because they promised me we we’re going to go out and get a drink together. Even though I don’t drink, they promised me, we’re going to do it. I only get one or two drinks a week. But Jerry is a great guy and I love that, but it’s just them damn [fans], they get on my last damn nerves. I mean, they really, I mean, they really, really do they. They are never at fault, they always walk around like they champions no matter how much they lose. And as much as I love the Joneses, and as much as I respect and love Michael Irvin, and all of these guys, there’s very few things in life that brings me more joy than seeing a Cowboy fan unhappy. It’s very few things better than that. It’s a beautiful feeling. It really is.
— Q: You worked in Philadelphia for a number of years.
— A: I worked in Philly from 1994 to 2010.
— Q: How do you see the NFC East this year?
— A: I see the Cowboys losing, that’s what I see. I see the Eagles being better than the Cowboys, that’s exactly what I see, and I have no doubt in my mind that that’s how it’s going to go down. I’m not remotely concerned about it.
— Q: What about Washington and New York?
— A: I ain’t thinking about no damn Commanders. Why should I? I mean, I’m not thinking about it, I got to see it to believe it. All right, Carson Wentz is your quarterback now, really, I’m supposed to be excited about that? Come on man, I ain’t thinking about no damn Commanders. It’s the furthest thing from my mind.
— Q: You and Molly [Qerim] have a really good chemistry. How does that work with a rotated guest? For instance, you have Michael Irvin on the show Thursday. How do you guys bring your chemistry together with someone else?
— A: Well, listen man, I think that it all rides with me. We know that I think Molly is an incredible asset to the show. She’s somebody I certainly need and don’t want to do the show without, which they know. She’s the person that I think that has been held back for years because the dynamic that was first me and Skip [Bayless] and then after that, the dynamic that was me and Max [Kellerman]. Well what happened with that is she gets held back because she has to moderate and work in that terrain. And so it was important to me that what was understood was that this is not my show, this is our show. And even though I might be the main attraction or whatever the hell you want to call me or whatever, reality of the situation is that I need her. I need her to do what she does because she gets the audience. She gets the show. She gets me. And so that was incredibly important and I think that the fact that it’s pretty much she and I, we’re the constant. She doesn’t have to worry about working through the minefield of a debate between me and somebody else on a regular basis where they have expectations. Now the people on the show have a job to do. It’s her job and my job to hold it down on a consistent basis. To make sure that we’re paying attention to what the audience wants and needs. That’s our job, that’s our responsibility. I’m aware of that so I’m good with it.
— Q: What’s the best thing about being on location when you do First Take?
— A: The fans are always great and that fan interaction is something that I’ve always welcomed and loved. It matters to me. It’s important to me to be with the fans. To know. To see. It’s one thing when you get numbers that tells you this is how they feel about you. You’ve been No. 1 for 10 years. It’s another thing to see it live and in living color, in person. That’s what we have going on and I’m very mindful of that. And I’m very appreciative and grateful for the fan support and that includes Cowboy fans, by the way. Like I said, we joking around, we having a good time, I love to hate on y’all and love to make fun of y’all or whatever, that’s true. But I just want people to know, it’s all in fun. They get on my last damn nerve but it’s like a sports fan getting on your nerves. It ain’t something to write home about and act like, “Oh my God, you know he hates Cowboys fans.” Like literally as human beings, no, this is about me having a good time, really ribbing them. I love when they are miserable over the Cowboys, I don’t want deaths in the family or anything like that. I just want the Cowboys to lose so you’ll be miserable. That’s what I want. That’s all I care about. I don’t root against Jerry. I don’t root against the Cowboys fans in real life. I just run against them on Sunday or Mondays when their their football team is playing ‘cause I don’t want them happy.
— Q: We forget sometimes that you’re a writer at heart and most writers want to write a book at some point in their career. What was the motivation behind your book?
— A: Well, it was time. It was the one thing in my career that I hadn’t done, I had done everything else and I had done everything else pretty successfully. I’ve been fortunate and blessed enough to do that. And so when the opportunity was presented to me to write my book, I had waited and waited and waited for years because I knew that it would be personal. It would be about me because I had no desire to write anything else. And I also knew that it would be very personal and I would say things about myself and my truths, in terms of my life, that quite frankly my mother never wanted me to say until she was gone. My mother had always made me promise that if I wrote a book, it would be after she passed away because she knows that I’m going to say what I want to say. And she knows that the only person who could stop me was her because for her, I do anything.
— Q: Did it make it harder to start writing it, especially after losing her?
— A: That’s what made it hard because she is the love of my life. The greatest woman that I’ve ever known and to be in the situation where she, I’m reminded of what she meant to me and why? And all the things that she did for me and how she taught me what unconditional love really is. To revisit the hardships that involved not just me, but, really, primarily her and what she had to endure to take care of me and my four older sisters and my late brother. To know all of that is one thing. To have to revisit that is another. And the one nugget that I’ll give you is that when I sent the book to my sisters, they didn’t talk to me for two weeks. And I thought that they were upset and it turns out they weren’t upset at me. It just hurt to revisit all the things we revisited. So in other words, it’s like something that went on in your life 30 years ago, or whatever, right, and you buried it. You remember it to some degree, but you buried it. And then all of a sudden it’s revisited because you’re reading details about what transpired that you remember yourself because you were there. So your little brother is chronicling this and you’re like, “Oh my God” and you’re remembering this happened, this happened, this happened, that happened, because my sisters were right there for a lot of it. So they know, intimately what I’m talking about and that, and that was a challenge. That was a huge challenge.
— Q: Everyone assumes your TV persona is who you are every day. Give them a little glimpse of who the real Stephen A. Smith is.
— A: I’m all things that you see. You see me on TV, I’m loud. Then I get mellow. I’m focused and serious as a heart attack, then I’m cracking jokes and laughing. I’m a multitude of things. I’m not one-dimensional. My personality in its totality is what you see on TV. Don’t look at one thing, look at it all. I can be loud. I can be lower in my monotone. I can be smooth, I can be demonstrative. I can be mellow. I can be funny. I can be serious. I can be focused and cerebral. I can be silly. It’s all of those things, all of those things are elements of my personality, and you get the full gamut of it when you see me on First Take.
