Kostas Lymperopoulos/Getty Images

Stephen A. Smith Refuses To Apologize For His Serena Williams Comment

Originally posted on The Spun | By Andrew Gould | Last updated Feb 13, 2025 1:18 PM ET

Stephen A. Smith addressed his remarks about Serena Williams' surprise appearance at the Super Bowl Halftime Show.

As Kendrick performed "Not Like Us" at the Superdome, the tennis icon briefly appeared on the field. Smith didn't appreciate Williams appearing to mock her former boyfriend, Drake, the subject of Lamar's Grammy Award-winning diss track.

"If I'm married and my wife is going to join trolling her ex, go back to his a**," Smith said on Monday's First Take. "'Cause clearly you don't belong with me. What you worried about him for and you're with me?"

One critic responded to Smith seemingly trying to put the 23-time singles Grand Slam champion in her place.

"A 57 year old UNMARRIED man with a receding hairline who has never BEEN married mind you, saying he would divorce our greatest living athlete who has been happily married for eight. years to her very rich and loving husband," the social media user wrote. "Keep quiet forehead."

Smith responded to the seething rebuke by insisting he was speaking generally rather than condemning Williams.

"Please go back and look at exactly what I said," Smith wrote. "I was talking overall from a man's perspective — highlighting what most men would think. I didn't utter a single disrespectful word about Serena."

Smith thinks people are reading too much into a playful TV segment.

"No issues with folks getting upset of literal serious stuff one's pissed about. This doesn’t qualify peeps," Smith continued. "Come on. We were joking around on First Take. Damn y’all! It's not that serious."

Smith reiterated that stance on his Wednesday show, saying he was "playing around" and insisted he said nothing personally about Williams. When explaining his stance, he conceded that some men are insecure.

"What I expressed is exactly what I meant," Smith said. "I'm not apologizing for it. I'm not condoning it either."

Williams' husband doesn't share Smith's worldview. Reddit founder Alex Ohanian celebrated her Super Bowl appearance. He called the moment "bigger than the music," noting that Williams received racially charged backlash for doing the same crip walk dance during the 2012 Wimbledon tournament.

While Ohanian didn't directly respond to Smith's assessment, he torched Jason Whitlock for calling him a "true beta."

"I get it—you’re 57, and life didn’t turn out the way you imagined. That kind of disappointment must be exhausting," Ohanian wrote. "You're the embodiment of peaked in high school, spending decades chasing validation from strangers through Likes and Digital Hugs, only to find that no amount of external approval fills the void."

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: