Stephen A. Smith Gets Crushed by NFL Team After Irate Hot Take

By Ross Kelly January 10, 2019 at 11:36am

In November, Kliff Kingsbury was the head football coach at Texas Tech. In December, he was the offensive coordinator at USC. Now in January, Kingsbury is onto his third job in three months as the new head coach of the Arizona Cardinals.

That didn’t sit well with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, who blasted the Cardinals for hiring Kingsbury this week.

Apart from Kingsbury’s losing record in college, Smith also said the Ryan Gosling look-alike would be better served appearing on “The Bachelor” rather than an NFL sideline.

This DUDE Kliff Kingsbury looks like a better candidate to be on the BACHELOR than a head coach of a football team, DAMNIT! pic.twitter.com/WYOG3DRRM8

— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) January 9, 2019

“The man didn’t have a .500 record at Texas Tech,” Smith said. “He got an offensive coordinator job at USC, and before he had a chance to take a leak, this brother’s got a head coaching job in the National Football League.”

The Cardinals apparently didn’t appreciate the comments. The team showed it has the back of its new coach when it responded by pointing to an infamous mistake Smith made that went viral.

“We thought you would be in a good mood since the Chargers activated Hunter Henry this week,” the Cardinals tweeted.

We thought you would be in a good mood since the Chargers activated Hunter Henry this week. https://t.co/lkVzzDwEa2

— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) January 9, 2019

That was a reference to an incident last month when Smith talked up tight end Hunter Henry in a Dec. 13 preview of that day’s Los Angeles Chargers-Kansas City Chiefs game. Henry had been on injured reserve and didn’t take a single snap in the regular season.

That was one of four blunders that Smith made in about 30 seconds during the segment.

[jwplayer xY01FpYH-01Ju7kF1]

Many on Twitter appreciated the team’s response.

Stephen A got burned.

— Jeremy Barnes (@Fanaticofsport4) January 9, 2019

Best tweet of 2019

— . (@P_MAGLOIRE) January 10, 2019

Thank you for this ??

— Elliki (@elliki12) January 9, 2019

Never one to humbly accept defeat, Smith fired back at the Cardinals.

I don’t care how many mistakes I’ve made in my 25 years in this business, I can assure you it falls short of the moribund product you guys contaminated the state of Arizona with over the previous 4 months…

— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) January 10, 2019

You found a scapegoat in your coach, hid the real culprits and now trying to sell everyone on a sub .500 coach who should be on The Bachelor. No matter! Wishing you the best of luck. Certainly not rooting against Mr. Kingsbury. But I WILL be watching!

— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) January 10, 2019

It’s rare for a coach to jump from college straight to the NFL as a head coach with no previous experience at the pro level.

However, Kingsbury did help groom Patrick Mahomes, Baker Mayfield and Johnny Manziel at Texas Tech, and the Cardinals hope he can help develop their young quarterback, Josh Rosen.

Do you think Kliff Kingsbury will be successful as an NFL head coach?

Kingsbury knows there are many critics out there, but he said in his introductory press conference he’s focusing only on what he can control.

“There’s nothing that I can say today that is going to change that,” Kingsbury said about those who doubt him. “I know that it’s about the work that started (Tuesday) and what we do from this point forward. That’s how I’m attacking that.”

Kingsbury will inherit a Cardinals team that went 3-13 last season and has the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. This will be the Arizona Cardinals’ first No. 1 overall selection, as the last time they had the first pick — in 1958 — they were the Chicago Cardinals.

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