ESPN colleague slams Stephen A. Smith

Stephen A. Smith wants to see more from Aaron Rodgers than what the four-time NFL MVP has shown through the first two games of the 2024 NFL season.

Apparently, Chris Canty vehemently disagrees.

During Thursday’s episode of Unsportsmanlike , the ESPN morning radio show played a clip from First Take in which Smith expressed his belief that Rodgers needs to be more than just a “game manager” for the New York Jets. But despite Smith specifying that he’s not asking for the Rodgers of 10 years ago, but rather the one of five-to-six-years ago, Canty made it clear that the ESPN star was making too tall of an ask.

“That’s such an asinine take by Stephen A. Smith,” Canty said. “I can’t believe he would say that you need the Aaron Rodgers from five or six years ago, the guy that was playing at an MVP level. You’re not gonna get that guy at 40 years old coming off of an Achilles injury. I said that before. I mean, Aaron Rodgers has gone, I think it’s been 24 games without throwing over 300 yards. That’s over 1,000 days when you consider the injury that kept him out last year.

“That’s not who he is as a quarterback anymore. But news flash, that’s not who the Jets needed him to be coming into this season. The Jets were always going to be a team if they were gonna contend at a championship level, that was gonna be led by their defense.”

While you could certainly debate how high of a level the Jets need Rodgers to play at to be considered a championship contender, it would be tough to argue that Smith’s take was egregious enough to be called “asinine.” Sure, New York’s defense is also going to need play better than it has the past two weeks. But if the Jets can’t reasonably ask for Rodgers to be than a game manager, then what are they paying him a $37.5 million average annual salary for?

As one might have expected, it didn’t take long for Smith to return fire.

“First of all, somebody wearing that damn table cloth shirt shouldn’t be calling anybody ‘asinine,'” Smith said, referring to Canty’s blue and yellow checkered shirt. “That’s the first thing, Chris Canty, my brother. Love you to death though. But he’s entitled to his opinion. I get where he’s coming from. And listen, that man has forgotten more football than I’ll ever know.”

Smith proceeded to double down on his original Rodgers take, before taking a parting shot at Canty’s wardrobe choice.

“Aaron Rodgers is gonna have to be more than he’s been in recent memory. That was my point,” Smith said. “I’m so sorry. That Mr. Tablecloth himself, Chris Canty finds that to be asinine.”

All things considered, Smith’s response could have been a lot harsher. Instead, he opted to playfully poke fun at Canty’s plaid shirt and defer to the ex-NFL defensive lineman’s football credentials while also defending his original take, in what proved to be one of the more reasonable Rodgers-related exchanges on ESPN airwaves in recent memory.

[ Unsportsmanlike , First Take ]

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