Friendship isn’t defined by other people’s opinions, and Michael Irvin stands by it. Despite Stephen A. Smith drawing a lot of bad comments and hate towards himself because of his bold remarks, Irvin never distanced himself from him. Even if it means taking that hate on himself.
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“I had dinner with Stephen A couple of weeks ago,” Michael Irvin said on Two Personal Show. “I posted a picture with my boy. Do you know how the people [are] responding to me? ‘Michael, man, listen, man. I’m done with you, Michael. I can’t believe you took a picture with him.’ Dude, I knew this dude for 35 years.
“You heard one little snippet of a comment about him. Now you want me to let your opinion override my opinion of him. Think about that.”
On August 18, Irvin posted a photo of himself having dinner with Smith, but some Cowboys fans quickly criticized him for spending time with someone they consider a “Cowboys hater.”
Smith is a broadcaster, and he is known for his hot takes on teams that are not just the Cowboys. Recently, he and Irvin sparred on the latter’s hopes of Dallas winning this season, and Smith called the former wide receiver out for having that same brazen hope for the Miami Hurricanes when they took on the Indiana Hoosiers in the National Championship game last season.
The two friends have a bond comfortable enough to call the other out and bring them back to reality.
“It has nothing to do with the Cowboys,” Smith said about his hate for the franchise on Super Bowl LVII Radio Row in Arizona back in 2023. “It has everything to do with their disgusting, nauseating fan base, which I can’t stand. That’s who they are. For me, I have nothing against any player on the Dallas Cowboys. … it’s their damn fans that get on my nerves.”
Though Irvin might not always agree with him on certain things, he is always there with him as a friend.
“That hurts,” Irvin said in a YouTube video in which he addressed the hate he got for that photo. “That hurts to think that, okay, you heard him have an opinion that you don’t like, and I should take that moment in time, that little inkling f****** moment in time in your pee-wee brain, and let it override all 35 years I’ve had me knowing this man — or I’m going to lose your support, whom I never met.”
The two have worked together on ESPN, including Smith’s marquee show, First Take. Smith and Irvin have fired numerous shots at each other, only to hold each other in deep respect at the end of the day. In fact, Smith once fiercely advocated for Irvin to be back on linear television. The words he used are a testament to how the two feel about each other.
“There’s not much on this planet Earth I would not do for Michael Irvin,” Smith said on his own show. “That’s my brother. I love him to death and I think he makes great television and I would never ever, ever sit up there and tell anybody that I want anybody more than I want Michael Irvin. It’s just that things that are going on are out of my control. Whether it’s the NFL, it’s the NFL Network, it’s ESPN, I don’t know. And I don’t have any control over that, that’s beyond my pay grade.”
Since Irwin was dropped by NFL Network in 2023, he hasn’t landed a job in the TV industry. But Irvin runs a successful podcast, which now airs on Netflix. It is a continuation of the career Smith helped establish many, many years ago, when the two featured on ‘Best Damn Sports Show Period’ on Fox Sports Net.
Smith left the comfort of ESPN in 2009 after ‘Quite Frankly’ was canceled in 2007. Not many know this fact, considering he is now the network’s highest-paid employee. But Smith persevered (partly by making his name sparring with Skip Bayless on FS1) and finally came back to ESPN. Irvin was appreciative of that journey, too.
“Stephen A.’s story is an inspiring story,” Irvin told The New York Post. “I judge a man in miles traveled. Don’t tell me where you are, tell me where you started and let me see where you are. I watched him have shows and lose them, have shows and lose them. All of that, and he never quit. And now he has the number 1 show.”
It’s all love between the two, despite Smith not having much love for Irvin’s team.