Stephen A. Smith’s apology to Lane Johnson was supposed to put the controversy to rest. Instead, it appears to have only added more fuel to the growing backlash, as calls for his firing continue to gain attention.
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According to Dov Kleiman on October 8, thousands of football fans are calling for ESPN to fire Stephen A. Smith for his insensitive comments about Lane Johnson, who retired due to his mental health.
Fans saw the apology as forced and too late as the damage was already done. Mental health has been a very sensitive topic for this generation, and to make light of something like this didn’t set well with the fans. People also felt that the tone in which he apologized had no remorse in it; rather, it felt like he was trying to make a point.
Smith has been in the broadcasting industry long enough to know what to say and what to avoid. Yet, while looking to draw more attention to the episode of First Take, he made a controversial comment about Johnson and his decision to retire midway through the season.
The news floated in yesterday that Johnson has decided to retire from the Philadelphia Eagle after four games in his 14th season. Johnson said that it was critical for him to step away immediately to focus on his family and long-term mental health. It must have been a tough decision to hang up his boots after 14 seasons in the NFL. Rather than being sensitive about the news, Smith related his retirement to the rocky 2-2 start of the Eagles.
“You know what, ‘I’m going to call it quits,'” Smith said, laughing, with a mocking tone while impersonating Johnson on First Take on October 7. “Now, he calls it quits. Not before the season. Not in the offseason. No, no, no.”
He continued in the same voice: “After being subjected to this, he said, ‘Life is a little bit too short. I need to focus on ‘— what did he say?’ His mental health? Am I making it up? Did he say that? Four games into the 2026 season, a dude that has been in the league forever sits back and says, ‘I need to focus on my mental health.’ As an offensive tackle, lord, you know it is bad.”
While he thought he was being funny, even his co-host Kimberley A. Martin was not amused and called him out for being a little too insensitive towards the situation. Smith also forgot a little detail: that Johnson had already tossed in the possibility of this season being his last in the offseason.
However, Smith brushed it off that time only to apologise a few hours later. On his Sirius XM radio show, he clarified that his aim was not to question Johnson’s mental health, but it was just a shot he was trying to take at the Eagles’ performance in the NFL and not him. Smith emphasised that his words were “misconstrued” and that he wasn’t “making light of mental health; I would never do that.”
However, it would take a lot more than just an apology from Smith to tame the chaos that he ignited. As for Johnson, he has not yet publicly addressed the comment made by the ESPN host, but I think the fans have taken a strong stand for him.