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One of the most fundamental aspects of sports is that the team that scores more points usually wins. That’s as true in the NFL and NBA as it is in Kan Jam and Cornhole. You’d think one of the most famous sports pundits in the U.S. would understand this concept. However, ESPN‘s Stephen A. Smith hilariously got this wrong on First Take on Friday and picked one team to score more points and the other team to win in a Week 1 NFL matchup.

Stephen A. Smith made a hilarious blunder on ‘First Take’

ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith looks on.
Stephen A. Smith | Eric Espada/Getty Images

Writer, radio host, TV talking head, and general sports blowhard (in the best way), Stephen A. Smith does — at a minimum — two hours of TV and two hours of sports talk radio five days a week. Then he often hosts NBA studio shows, appears on SportsCenter, and produces social media content as well.

All that adds up to well over 1,000 hours of sports media content a year.

When you spend that much time coming up with hot takes, opinions, analysis, and predictions, you’re bound to get a few (loud) wrong.

That’s what happened to Stephen A. of First Take this week when he was offering predictions for Week 1 of the upcoming NFL season.

First Take host Molly Qerim asked Smith which team in the “powerhouse” AFC West division would score the most points in Week 1. Smith answered, “I’m going to go with the Chargers!”

When Qerim asked why, Smith responded incredulously, “Justin Herbert! [Mike] Williams! Keenan Allen! Nobody’s stopping that offense!”

Then Qerim asked — and part of this whole debacle is on Qerim for even asking this question after Smith’s last answer — “Raiders/Chargers. Who are you backing to win this one Stephen A.?”

To which Stephen A. replied, “I don’t knooow. I’m gonna go with the Raiders.”

So, the Los Angeles Chargers will score more points than anyone in the AFC West (the Kansas City Chiefs, Denver Broncos, and Las Vegas Raiders) yet will somehow lose to the Raiders? The answer made no sense whatsoever and riled up the Stephen A. haters on social media.

It certainly wasn’t Smith’s finest moment on television. And it will live in infamy on the internet. But that won’t stop the indefatigable Stephen A. from showing up on Monday and offering more hot takes on First Take, ESPN Radio, SportsCenter, NBA Countdown, Instagram, and so on and so on.

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Tim Crean

Tim Crean started writing about sports in 2016 and joined Sportscasting in 2021. He excels with his versatile coverage of the NFL and soccer landscape, as well as his expertise breaking down sports media, which stems from his many years downloading podcasts before they were even cool and countless hours spent listening to Mike & The Mad Dog and The Dan Patrick Show, among other programs.

As a longtime self-professed sports junkie who even played DII lacrosse at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, Tim loves reading about all the latest sports news every day and considers it a dream to write about sports professionally. He’s a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan from Western New York who mistakenly thought, back in the early ’90s, that his team would be in the Super Bowl every year. He started following European soccer — with a Manchester City focus — in the early 2000s after spending far too much time playing FIFA.

When he’s not enjoying a round of golf or coaching youth soccer and flag football, Tim likes reading the work of Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chuck Klosterman, and Tom Wolfe.