ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith is one of the most recognizable faces in the United States. Every football fan must and will know about the no-nonsense commentator, who never thinks about mincing his words. Well, that attitude finally came back to bite him in the back, when he made some rather unwelcome comments about another famous personality. Even his apology went awry the first time around.
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Appearing on the daytime talk show hosted by Sherri Shepherd, Smith gave his two cents on Rihanna performing in the upcoming Super Bowl halftime show. He said, “Ladies and gentlemen, she’s a lot of things — she’s spectacular, actually — and congratulations on new mama-hood”. He paused before continuing, and said, “There’s one thing she’s not: She ain’t Beyoncé.”
His words immediately drew boos from the audience of the show, and he tried to clarify his stance by bringing up Beyoncé’s previous Super Bowl performances. To which host Sherri Shepherd said, “Beyoncé performed, but she’s had her time. Now it’s Rihanna.”
Smith’s words did not land with Rihanna’s fans at all. Soon after the clip was released, he had an army pounding at his gates. Or rather, a navy: Rihanna’s Navy. Sensing the immense backlash he’s been receiving, Smith posted a video online in an attempt to apologize to Rihanna, and calm her fanbase down. Unfortunately for him, even that went awfully wrong.
Stephen A. Smith botches apology attempt, draws more flak on himself
In the initial apology video posted on Twitter, the caption was somewhat a bit too unnecessary. In the caption, he took a shot at RiRi’s fanbase, calling them “worse than Beyoncé’s Beyhive”. The Tweet was quickly deleted, and Smith blamed it on an “overzealous member of his management team.”
RiRi’s Super Bowl performance was announced way back in September, which was soon followed by the release of “Lift Me Up”, her single for the “Black Panther” movie, her first single as a lead artist in 7 years. Her fans, however, will be far more interested in what happens on the day after the Super Bowl.
They’ll gleefully be waiting for Smith to come on his show and talk about how incredible the halftime show was. They’d want him to double down on swallowing his words, and they will not make him forget his words. Evidently, he will be crucified for his accidental slights at RiRi, and there is literally nothing he can do about it.
