Stephen A. Smith And Terrell Owens Go Back-And-Forth Over Max Kellerman Remarks

Stephen A. Smith hasn’t been shy about explaining why he no longer wanted to work with Max Kellerman on First Take. This weekend, his added commentary on the situation led to a back-and-forth with Terrell Owens via X, formerly known as Twitter.

The 55-year-old sports journalist joined The Joe Budden Podcast last Wednesday (Sept. 13) and was asked about Kellerman’s departure from their popular show after working there for five years. “I had mad respect for him from the standpoint of white dude, highly intelligent, Ivy League, educated from Columbia,” Smith said. “Smart as a whip. Can talk his a** off. Can talk about anything. I get all that. But you weren’t an athlete, and you weren’t a journalist. And the absence of the two components left people wondering ‘Why should we listen to you?'”

As aggregation accounts on X began to pick up the quote, the ESPN employee addressed the situation once again. “Same question, Same answer for damn-near two years now: Max & I weren’t working in the end,” he said. “I wanted to win. So I didn’t want that duo. [Doesn’t] mean [he] isn’t smart, talented and that he’s not a good guy. I have nothing against him. I wish him well. Just needed a change. That’s all.”

Fans were doubtful of Stephen A. Smith’s explanation of why he no longer wanted to work with Max Kellerman, and one user resurfaced a clip that they believed was the real reason. Terrell Owens appeared on a November 2019 episode of First Take where he, Smith, and Kellerman discussed Colin Kaepernick’s attempts to get back into the NFL. At one point, the NFL Hall Of Famer stated that Kellerman almost seemed “Blacker” than Smith, to which Smith said that he crossed the line.

Owens caught wind of the tweet and quoted it, writing “FACTS!!!!!!!!!” on Friday (Sept. 15). One day later, Stephen A. Smith quoted Owens’ tweet and wrote “Now….as for this dude, that’s an entirely different story. You know how I feel about your sorry a** @terrellowens and you know why! You should thank your Heavenly Father I haven’t zeroed in on you with the trifling sh*t you tried to pull. Tell folks to ask ESPN what your desperate a** tried to pull. Keep on talking. Eventually, you’ll expose yourself! #REALFACTS.”

Less than 10 minutes later, Smith quoted the tweet again and pondered dedicating an entire episode of his podcast, The Stephen A. Smith Show, to detailing everything that the six-time Pro Bowler allegedly did to Black men behind the scenes while questioning his own Blackness.

Owens replied to Smith with a long tweet, writing “Now Stephen A…Ask me if I’m scared?! I thank God every day or I at least try to but do what you do best. I’m not worried. You don’t have to make some bold attempt to ‘expose me’ because I have NOTHING to hide. You’re mad because of the advice of my attorney after we filed against ESPN because on air without my consent you shared our text conversation.”

He even brought up his past appearance on First Take and stated that he is “#TeamMax.”

Terrell Owens addressed Stephen A. Smith’s tweet about discussing things he did behind the scenes as well, saying “Behind what scenes???! Again, Man I’m NOT WORRIED because I stand on my character and who I am. You better come with some FACTS and not this hearsay and anonymous sources because that’s not gonna fly.”

In the midst of this back-and-forth, Kyrie Irving stepped in and encouraged both men to take their feud offline and speak over the phone. “Get what you need off your chest and move on. #Therearemoreimportantthingstodo,” the Dallas Mavericks guard wrote. Smith replied to him and said “Respectfully bro, you don’t know the whole story. I have nothing to say to his sorry pathetic a** — but that doesn’t mean you’re wrong! You are right bro! I’m man enough to admit that. I will stand down.#Respect.”

Evidently, Owens wasn’t interested in the exchange ending there. “Don’t stand down now!!!” he wrote in a quote tweet of Smith’s reply to Irving. “I’ll be sorry and pathetic, be sure to keep that same energy when you see me next time. You see I’m not intimidated by you because you have a platform and a loud mouth to claim that that you’re going to allegedly expose me about something. It seems to me that you’re the one being exposed. Please EXPOSE ME! Let us know what you got.”

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