Stephen A's Take: Get@Me Phone Calls - Stephen A. Smith responds to Brock Purdy getting no QB respect.

Published Aug 8, 2024, 8:00 PM

Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown.  Special Fan Edition of Get@Me, Stephen A. Smith responds to phone call questions from fans!  Now, if you have a video question, please copy the link to your URL and submit your question: https://www.3815media.com/sas/

Let me take some calls next, Okay, because you like to hear from the people, not just read what they say. I want to hear what they say from time to time. Okay, if you're brave enough to call, I'm brave enough to listen. So let's get right to it. Nike in in La, you're live with Stephen A.

What's up, hey, Stephen?

And how you doing today? I'm alright, talk to me? What's up?

So? When you got guys like Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Steve from Minecraft, who do you think is the best Super Smash Bro's character to use?

I have no idea. I have no idea. I'm a grown ass man. How old are you? Man?

I'm sixteen.

Oh you're sixteen. So you're asking a fifty six year old man about video games?

Hey, I mean I don't I think everyone can play video games?

No, no, no, I'm not. I'm not knocking no, no, no no no. I'm not saying that you're that you're wrong for like asking me about it. It's the expectation that I would know what you know? You know what I'm saying. I mean, could you have asked do I watch it? Do I play it or something. I mean, I'm kind of busy, you know what I'm saying. But I will admit I want to learn. I got to play some of these video games because my daughter's be getting on me about it all the time. So you're absolutely right, You're not wrong. I'm just saying. It's one thing that asks. It's another thing to have the expectation you feel me.

You're right, you're right.

That's like me asking you. That's like me asking you did you pay the mortgage?

We would you say your favorite video game is?

Then listen, I don't play a lot of video games. I really really don't. I don't at all. It's people around me that's playing them. You know what I'm doing. Man, you won't me tell you what I'm doing, Like ready for this, Oh, I'm buying the damn games. I'm buying the games from my two daughters, from my fifteen nieces and nephews for some of their kids. Because some of my nieces a nephew in their thirties. It's stuff like that. Man, it's stuff like that.

But I appreciate it would be a good bonding experience, you know.

Okay, okay, So give me some advice. Give me some advice. I'm listening.

I'd say, i'd say, bye, you could buy Super Snashers. You could play Minecraft.

Okay, Minecraft I heard about. I was watching my daughter play that.

Okay, that's a really good game to play.

All right, Okay, I'll try it. Listen, do me a favor. Call me back in a couple of months, give me a couple of months. Warm up. Okay, call me back in a couple of months and ask me about it.

All right, Yeah, I got it.

I'm gonna get it. I'm gonna go get it, and you deserve the credit for it. I'm gonna get it just because you told me to. It better not be no whack ass game now, Yeah, yeah, it better be fun. I bet now. I'm telling you right now. I better have a good time doing it.

Yeah, you'd have a great time playing like Super Snashers and Minecraft.

Okay what i'd say.

Okay, all right, I'm gonna take your word for it. All right, thanks a lot, man, Appreciate the love. Caleb. In New York you live and Stephen.

They talk to me, Hey, how you doing.

I'm doing all right? Thank you? Call it? What's up? Yeah?

I have a food question for you you ready, I'm listening, all right? If you could have one but never have the other. Are you picking steak or fried chicken but never.

Have the other?

You never have the other?

Like if I eat one, I have to sacrifice the other forever. Yes, well, I'm gonna sacrifice. I'm gonna sacrifice. I ain't gonna lie to you. I mean, it's not the greatest thing for a black person to admit, but I'm gonna sacrifice the steak to make sure I can get the chicken.

Oh okay, I'm just gonna be honest with you.

This is the truth.

I see you.

We ain't gonna be phony on this show. I eat steak a lot, but that's because I need the protein. And I'm trying to put on weight because I got in shape and stuff like that. But I lost a lot of body fat, you understand, and now I'm trying to put on some pans. Okay. That's that. That that that's why I eat the steak. I eat the chicken because it's delicious and I love it.

But what if you want to to go to a nice restaurant and you cannot you can never order a state. What happens?

Then you order seafood.

Oh, seafood. I didn't even think about that competition.

That's right, that's right, the samon, the salmon.

All right, you're right.

You got shrimp, you got crabs. You understand, you got all of that. Yes, you go see you right? Oh bye about this lamb good too, as in lamb chops. How much you weigh?

Man?

How much you wait because you sound fat because you get to giving up on food? You said, how much do you weigh? Twenty? And how totally you five? And how old are you?

I'm twenty two, sir.

Okay, that's you're a big boy for twenty two years age. You know that? Right?

Oh yeah, okay, but I'm on keto now, okay, keto.

Okay, you don't have to do it, you listen, You don't have to do all of that. All you got to do is get in the gym on a regular rasis and remember it's a lifestyle and getting the gym, getting the gym five six days a week. And all you gotta do is thirty minutes of cardio and watch your intake, particularly at night. You want to make sure you don't eat prior to about three hours before bed. That's right, all right, brother, Take it easy, man, appreciate it. Appreciate it. Christ and California talk to me. You love with steven A. What's up baby?

Hey, how's it going man? So yeah, okay, that's good. So I'm getting a little bit tired of not you in particular, but just people in the media not giving Rock Purty his credit. I mean, I don't really know what else he what else he has to do to I mean, you know, prove the doubt or is wrong. I get it. He lost the Super Bowl. Many quarterbacks have lost the Super Bowl. I mean, he's got four thousand passing yards of last season. One of the things was, oh, he can't play from behind. He did that twice in the playoffs, and then you know, we get to, oh, but you know he's not.

Mobile, Like came back against Detroit. I thought they were going to lose that game. That a half time, came back against Detroit. I gotta get credit with credit to do you, right, Chris?

Yeah, I mean and that was there. That was that was pretty cool. But I just want to know why why is it so hard for people to admit, well, he is a top ten quarterback.

Let me tell you why. Let me tell you.

Why.

First of all, I agree with you, so let me get that out the way first. I agree with you, all right, but let me play Devil's advocate here. A lot of times you're looking at the guys when they're playing the quarterback position. You're looking at their arm strength. Going are the days where you look at somebody you might be too young to notice or whatever. But a Kenny Stabler, for example, they used to play for the Raiders back in the day. He couldn't throw a long ball to save his life, but he would pick you apart piece by piece with short yardage throws in between the seams. Rock Purdy is an efficient quarterback, very efficient, i might add, master Kyle Shanahan's system. Not to mention the fact that again he has shown up and he has won. He has proven to be better than Jimmy Garoppolo. He has proven to be, at least at this point, better than Trey Lance. He's proven to be better than a plethora of others, anybody that has been coached under Kyle Shanahan outside of Matt Ryan when he was the offensive coordinator in Atlanta and Matt Ryan was his quarterback. But here's the problem. Chris when you're looking at arm strength right and you see that something is lacking, and then you take into the into account that you can dip, dick and dunk the ball to a Christian McCaffrey, to a Debo Samuel to a lesser degree to a Brandon Ayuk and of course George Kittle. Those plethora of weapons forces you to look at the team and say, damn, he got a lot to work with. A lot of other quarterbacks didn't have that. When we saw CJ. Stroud making noise last year. Okay, he had Tank Dell as his wide receiver. So you look at things and you say, you say to yourself, guys that can fling the ball or what have you? Even to a tongue of a lower got more credit. Why because to a tongue of a lower can throw the long ball. And in our eyes we think throwing a long ball shows that you're a legit quarterback. But you're right, Rock Purty needs to be appreciated more. But I do understand the reservations because what you're asking is that if he had the receivers that Patrick Mahomes had last year that was dropping damn near every pass he threw and all he really had to rely upon was Travis Kelsey. Would Brock Purdy have been as good as he was? That's how you have people judging you, and you got to understand that.

Well, one of the problems I have with that is, you know, like if we put let's let's say Josh Allen, right, I mean he has Stefon Diggs, right, and he like he has a he has leapons, but we never but we still keep him at the Oh he's an elite quarterback.

Well, let me tell you why. I gotta get ready to go. But let me tell you why because we saw him in that AFC Championship game point form at a very elite level against uh Patrick Patrick Patrick Mahomes. That's number one, number two. He's a stud. He's six six six, He's running over opponents, he's throwing out, scrambling outside of the pocket, throwing off balance, doing a lot of things that show you his athleticism and his greatness is supreme the most others. That's the issue. When we see Brock Purty, we know how efficient he is, but we also believe that he's incredibly protected by a god by the name of Kyle Shanahan, who's considered one of the greatest offensive minds in football and does an incredible job of protecting his quarterback. So those are things you can't ignore either. But again, you do have a good point in terms of asking a legitimate, legitimate, bona fide question, and I can't deny that. Appreciate the love, Chris, Thank you so much. Keep it coming, Brendan and Arizona. You're live with steven A. How are you?

I'm fantastic, are you?

I'm all right? Talk to me. You're live at your boys, stephen A. What's up up?

So obviously I don't know if he saw you.

Probably did.

Tom Thibodeaux was.

Extended three years.

I did, And I'm just curious if.

You think, for one, what do you think of that decision.

I think it's the right decision. I think it was the right decision, and I think Tom Thibddau has earned it, and I think he's proven me wrong. I thought that ty Loo would have been a better coach for the New York Knicks. I thought that was somebody that the New York Knicks should have pursued. I like, I respect the hell out of Tom Thibodeaux, and I know that He's done a decent job with the New York Knicks, but I always have this fear that he'll run you into the ground and you'll get hurt during the playoffs. Now, the New York Knicks had everybody hurt during the playoffs. Mitchell Robinson got hurt, oh Jenna Nobe got hurt, Josh Hart got hurt, Jaylen Brunton even got hurt everywhere you turned. But the bottom line is is that that wasn't Tom Thibodeau's fault because you knew guys had been hurt earlier in the season and they had received a certain level of rest. So therefore you can't blame him for running into them into the ground because he didn't have them available to run him for him to run them into the ground, I think he's done an exceptional job. He deserved the contract extension, and he deserves a mere cope or for me personally, because I thought but that Todd lou would be better suited for the Knixt job, and after the way he had them playing in the first two rounds of the playoffs, I can't say enough about the job that Tom Thibodeau did. He deserves the contract extension. That's where I'm at with it, all right, Brendan, that good enough for you.

Do you think they're ready to compete with the likes of the Celtics this year.

No, well, let me take that back. They can compete. I think they need an additional big man now that the Lois Hartenstein. They need an additional big man. But I like their cores. I like Julius Randall coming back. I like Mitchell Robinson coming back. I love to pick up bridges. You kept Anonobe for two hundred and twelve million dollars, Jalen Brunton is re upped with you, and on top of it all, you still have Josh Hard and Dante DiVincenzo. I don't have a problem with that at all. I think the New York Knicks can battles, test it and can give you a run for your money to some degree, but not to the degree that the Philadelphia seventy six ers can do. With Joe l and B MAXI is no joke pulled Joe George with Maxie and Joel Ebid won't be a joke. But Joel and B make no mistake, is the X factor. If this brother is one hundred healthy, he is unstoppable on one leg. He averaged thirty five on the knicks. This brother is scary great and and I can't put the knicks above them with the arsenal, the offensive arsenal that the seventy six ers have available to them right now, all right, appreciate the call. Noah and Alaska. You're alive with steven A. What's up? Noah? How are you?

I'm good? Stem all right?

Talk to me? All right?

So my question today was basically regarding Michael Pennix, and I'm thinking if he should say in Atlanta, and if he does decided to say in Holandah, how long will it take until Hero places Kirk Cousins?

Well, what what's wrong with him staying in Atlanta? The brother hasn't even passed gas yet in the NFL, hasn't even passed He's not he has not farted in the NFL yet. Yeah, hasn't even been a preseason game play. Why are you talking about how long should he be in Atlanta?

I just think the pay pick was not a great pick, okay, because we we picked up the Falcons, picked up Kirk Cousins.

Well, you think, on Tom, Tom, tell about do you think it wasn't a great pick because they picked them up, or do you think it wasn't a great pick because they already had Kirk Cousins.

I think it wasn't a great pick because we already had Kirk Cousins.

All right, now, let me stop you right there. What is Kirk cousins record in the postseason?

Uh?

That great? How about one? How about the man has one playof victory? Now, the brother great at getting his money. Whoever his agent is, we should all hire. Okay, because he's great at getting he's great at getting at getting his money. But he's like one and three in the postseason.

Okay, but he's got one and four weapons around him.

He's got some you know what? What what? What the hell was justin Jefferson Chop Liver? He has the weapons.

I just I just think the coaching staff in I think it's a little bit better than.

Well, you know what. That's not saying a lot compared to what they had. I mean, I'm glad Arthur Smith is and Pittsburgh is an official coordinator, but as a head coach, I mean, I'm not about to brag home about it. So I get what you're where, You're coming from But I also think it's okay to pick up Pennix Junior considering the fact that Kirk Cousins is coming off of his of his of his leg injury. I think that's the right thing to do. Because you want to insure yourself at the quarterback position, why not get a young brother with a rifle of an arm as a south pole that can step into the lineup and make things happen in the event that your quarterback who was hurt last year, who's coming back fresh off of an injury, doesn't have it or isn't healthy enough to go. I think you got a security blanket, and I think that was the right thing to do. I don't have a problem with that. Picked at the Atlanta Falcons mate. So this is where I'm at with it. Appreciate the call. Thank you so much, Thank you so much. Watch