Not yet ready to launch a political campaign in earnest, Stephen A. Smith will stick with ESPN for the next five years. The Athletic reports Smith and ESPN have agreed on a new contract “worth at least $100 million.” He’ll continue to appear on his show First Take, but won’t be a regular on ESPN’s premiere NBA pregame show anymore; sources suggest Smith’s scaled back obligations will allow him to “talk even more about politics,” if that is indeed what he wants to do.
“I’m happy and honored to remain a member of the Disney/ESPN family for, at least, the next five years,” Smith said in a statement (via The Hollywood Reporter). “There’s only bigger and bigger things ahead. It starts with continuing to put in that work. See y’all soon.”
The Athletic reports that Smith may occasionally appear on other programs like “Monday Night Football” pregame or “other big time events.” But the contract apparently frees him up to pursue possible opportunities outside ESPN. For Smith those have lately veered so far into the realm of political commentary that there’s been discussion of him running for president in 2028. During an appearance on The Tonight Show on Wednesday, he reacted to the presidential headlines, saying, “Folks are nuts, number one. Number two, the Democrat Party, they lost. They had a bad few months. We all know this. And even though there’s a lot of qualified Democrats all over the country from a local perspective—governors, mayors, stuff like that—there’s no real national voice. Enter moi. They’ve come to me.”
Smith said he “did not ask for” the political support: “I don’t want this. I happen to have a very, very, very good life, very good job. I’m good, very good.” However, he admitted he’d been watching polling that included his name: “And I’m saying, ‘Wait a minute now. I don’t want to do this.’ But the fact that they’re talking about me this way, I must say… I approve this message.” We’ll see if that five-year contract gets fulfilled amid these potential political aspirations.
