The power of Stephen A. Smith’s body language is second to none.
Stephen A. has basically made a living off of spewing hot takes in the sports world. And as he’s grown in his career, he’s also mastered the art of responding in disgusted fashion to the hot takes of others. That was on full display this morning when ESPN’s First Take tackled the LSU-Governor Landry story, and ESPN’s Ryan Clark went on a rant against some of the governor’s latest actions.
Ryan Clark has become somewhat of a controversial figure in the sports commentary landscape. The former football player has won an Emmy for his work, but some critics call him divisive, and accuse him of not always seeing the full picture in certain, serious situations.
The critics are coming out of the woodworks to call him out today because he criticized the Governor of Louisiana for suggesting that a Charlie Kirk statue should be erected on the campus of LSU. Ryan Clark was beginning to rip into Governor Landry about his comments on LSU’s coaching search when he added that in there:
“First off, it’s the second most ridiculous thing he’s said this week. The first was standing on campus and saying he wanted to put a statue of somebody (Charlie Kirk) that doesn’t represent the people of Louisiana, doesn’t represent the players and the students at LSU, doesn’t represent the executives that work there. That was the first dumb thing he said this week.”
Governor Landry did, in fact, stand on campus and say that LSU should put up a statue in honor of the political activist who was assassinated in September. Here’s the video that was posted by the governor himself after Turning Point USA had a gathering on campus:
Doesn’t seem like Governor Landry was coming from a bad place with that idea, but Ryan Clark evidently despises the thought of a Charlie Kirk statue going up on LSU’s campus.
Clark then moved on to the drama surrounding LSU’s athletic director, Scott Woodward, and the governor. Jeff Landry came out and said that Woodward would not be in charge of choosing the football team’s next head coach after Brian Kelly fizzled out and was fired four years into his tenure as the Tigers head coach.
Ryan Clark pointed out that Woodward was responsible for hiring Jay Johnson, the coach of the LSU baseball team who just won the 2025 College World Series, and Kim Mulkey, the women’s basketball head coach who led the Tigers to a championship in 2023.
He also pointed out that, in his opinion, Governor Landry should have no say in what goes on at LSU:
“To me, this is another situation of politicians poking their nose into things they don’t know about. I honestly believe it was so he could get in front of a microphone and say, ‘Look at this connection I have to the president and he likes to pick winners’ so he can placate to someone he idolizes.
You don’t know nothing about football. There’s enough going on in the state of Louisiana that needs to be fixed for its constituents. I don’t need you tweeting on Saturday night about what’s going on at Tiger Stadium. There are too many issues happening right there under your nose that ain’t got nothing to do with sports.”
Simply put, Ryan Clark was fired up about it all, and clearly has great disdain for the Louisiana governor.
And throughout Ryan Clark’s monologue directed at Governor Jeff Landry, Stephen A. Smith was seated like this and scowling at him pretty much the entire time:
hahaha the look that Stephen A is giving him is priceless. pic.twitter.com/frEu66hMOA
— Ivan (@Ivantheboomer) October 30, 2025
Goes to show you can sometimes say a lot by saying nothing at all.
Safe to say that Stephen A. Smith is a little over his fellow ESPN employee. Even as Smith ventures into politics himself, this video makes it seem as though he’s not impressed with Ryan Clark calling out politicians for stepping into the sports world. Could it be that Stephen A. knows it’s a bit hypocritical, since Clark often brings political themes into his sports takes?
