Michelle Beadle has never been one to mince words, and her latest takedown of Stephen A. Smith might be her sharpest yet. The former ESPN host went scorched earth on her old colleague after Smith’s controversial endorsement of a gaming company accused of defrauding players, a move that Beadle described as ‘gross’ and ‘principle-free.’
“Honestly, I’m not a religious person, but I pray for the downfall. It’s gross, man, you gotta have principles in this thing.”
“ESPN pays him a gazillion dollars to get a lot of stuff wrong and yell.He gets caught playing solitaire during the NBA freaking Finals. You created this monster. He is bigger than you now, and that’s exactly your fault. You let him run rampant all over that company. He made you look like fools for handing him a blank check in the first place”
“He doesn’t even give a s**t about the stuff that he’s paid a gazillion dollars to talk about. Now he’s turning around and turning that into a money-making opportunity. Then the money-making opportunity looks like it’s a fraudulent crap business to begin with.”
“I will never share a set with that person ever, because I don’t respect him. Life’s too short.”
On a recent episode of Beadle & Decker, her podcast with former MLB player Cody Decker, Beadle unloaded on Smith for promoting Solitaire Cash, a mobile app developed by Papaya Gaming. The endorsement came months after Smith went viral for being caught playing solitaire during ESPN’s NBA Finals coverage, a meme-worthy blunder that Smith somehow turned into a sponsorship deal.
Her criticism stemmed not only from Smith’s endorsement of a company mired in controversy but also from what she views as ESPN’s enabling of his ego. Papaya Gaming has been accused in court of rigging games through the use of bots disguised as real human players, allegedly defrauding users out of money. Despite the controversy, Smith, along with several other ESPN personalities, including Mina Kimes, Laura Rutledge, and Kendrick Perkins, endorsed the app online.
Beadle, who was blindsided earlier this year when Smith’s new SiriusXM show replaced hers without warning, has made no secret of her disdain for how ESPN handles internal politics. She and Decker were both dismissed when Smith’s show was greenlit, and Beadle has since used her platform to call out what she perceives as hypocrisy in sports media.
This isn’t Beadle’s first clash with Smith. Their tensions date back to 2014 when she publicly criticized him over remarks about domestic violence, prompting a brief apology from Smith. The two were never close, and Beadle made it clear earlier this year that their relationship hasn’t thawed.
Her latest comments, though, strike a deeper chord not just about Smith but about the larger culture of celebrity at ESPN. As Smith’s influence has grown, so too has the perception that he’s untouchable, free to operate outside the usual corporate constraints. Beadle, once a rising star at the same network, sees it as a cautionary tale of what happens when a network prioritizes personality over principle.
Beadle’s criticism of Smith reflects a broader frustration in sports media, where figures with massive followings often cross into endorsement deals that blur ethical lines. The Papaya Gaming case, now under legal scrutiny for deceptive business practices, adds another wrinkle to the ongoing conversation about accountability in the industry.
For Smith, the backlash is just another controversy in a career full of them. He’s one of the most powerful voices in sports media, with his First Take dominance, his own podcast, and a growing list of personal business ventures. Yet Beadle’s comments hit a nerve precisely because they came from someone who knows firsthand what it’s like to work alongside him and to lose her platform because of him.
As Beadle and Decker’s clip made the rounds online, fans were divided. Some applauded Beadle for speaking truth to power, while others dismissed her comments as bitterness from someone ousted by Smith’s success. But even among his defenders, there’s no denying that Smith’s brand and his endless list of side hustles are testing the limits of ESPN’s credibility.
If Stephen A. Smith’s empire ever does start to crumble, Michelle Beadle will be watching, not with sympathy, but with satisfaction.
