Stephen A. Smith clashes with ex-ESPN colleague over why men are silent on trans athletes in sports

Former ESPN colleagues Stephen A. Smith and Sage Steele reunited on her podcast to discuss a plethora of issues, one of which was transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.

The discussion got rather contentious at first, as Steele asked Smith why it took him “three years” to speak out, but Smith clarified that he spoke about Lia Thomas at UPenn from “day one” on ESPN’s “First Take.”

In any case, the two do agree on the subject, and Steele asked Smith why he thinks men of power have been quiet on the issue.

“Why do you think so many male athletes — we work with these men every single day, NFL, NBA, whatever it is, who’ve got not as much to risk — they’ve got $150 million in their pocket, or maybe it’s much less, I don’t care. This is common sense,” Steele asked Smith. “And many of them, like you, have daughters who are athletes. Are you going to let a young man at the volleyball net play against your daughter knowing what’s at risk? We have seen the injuries.

“And so there are way too many men… in prominent positions who have the financial security. This is not your $65,000-a-year job, someone who’s a janitor and is trying to talk in a school board meeting who really could lose his job for this opinion, which is insane. These men in sports who know damn well a woman could not compete are staying silent. Why?”

“Some guys, some people, and this is very, very sad, some people don’t care about a damn thing unless it affects them directly. We just got to call it like we see it,” Smith obliged. “Some of us are conscientious enough to say, ‘Bump that, I got this public platform, ain’t no way I can sit silently and say nothing.’ Some people, when it comes to politics, it’s a cesspool. It’s been a cesspool. This is the latest issue.”