Stephen A. Smith is bombastic. Colorful. Grandiose.
But he showed another side of himself on the topic of Anthony Fauci: humbled.
The ESPN commentator revealed that he got into the fight of his life during the COVID pandemic, despite following the advice of the “experts.”
“We were told, ‘Hey, you ain’t gonna get Covid if you do that.’ And I GOT COVID!” he exclaimed.
“And damn it, it almost killed me!” he continued. “Going into 2022, I’m in the hospital 90 minutes before the ball is about to drop, and the doctor says, ‘We’ve been at this for three plus weeks. You got double pneumonia. You look really bad. If this antibiotic and this steroid do not work, Mr. Smith, I’m sorry, we’re gonna have to call your family. Looks that bad…’”
“And through the grace of God, three hours later, I felt better after they gave me that steroid and that antibiotic,” he added. “But those were the longest three hours of my life because I thought it was over.”
“And I remember I had done exactly what Dr. Anthony Fauci was imploring us all to do.”
Stephen A. also excoriated Fauci over the “advice” he gave Americans during the pandemic. Here is more from his amazing rant.
“Ladies and gentlemen, as I said, the man pleaded the Fifth 111 times, but they got a hold of his diary. And when you talk about self-aggrandizement being taken to a new level, definitely he was guilty of at least that.
“We learned that mask [mandates], six feet distancing… These were not scientific decisions being made. This was made by a man whose ego was just larger than life — talking about people calling him the sexiest man alive, fawning over celebrities and them fawning over him, caught up in the celebration and everything else in between. It was embarrassing.
“And it was embarrassing not only to him, but it was embarrassing to us who took his word as gospel and ignored all the cynicism and the criticism that was coming his way. We sat back and we bought his stuff, hook, line, and sinker. He was the face of science.
“I cover sports for a living. And over the national airwaves, I had to go on the air. I felt compelled to go on the airwaves and apologize to the likes of NBA star Kyrie Irving or an NFL star like Aaron Rodgers because of the scrutiny they received, the assist that I provided in aiming that scrutiny or assisting in that scrutiny coming in their direction — because the face of science was telling us this is not wise, this is not what’s supposed to be happening.
“And the level of dominion and control that he was having over the lives of American citizens… I’m just going to say it over the airwaves of SiriusXM: It was almost like it gave him a damn hard-on. That’s right. I said it. That’s how bad it was.
“When you read his diaries or what the Senate revealed, led by Senator Rand Paul, who was on the air with me just a few days ago explaining in detail some of those things that transpired — this is shameful. It’s shameful.
“And if you think people are going to forget that Dr. Anthony Fauci did what he did on Capitol Hill last week during the hearing… particularly when tomorrow that same committee is expected to announce they are indicting Anthony Fauci for essentially misleading the public because they got a lot of questions about some of the decisions he’s made…
“I’m not saying you need to go that far. I’m not saying they’re completely right about that. I don’t believe this man at 85 years of age who’s done tremendous work spanning decades should be thrown in jail. But do I think that he should be embarrassed for the self-aggrandizement that he engaged in? You damn right I do.
“Because some of the things that he was telling us to do was inconsistent with science. But he was telling us it was science that led to him making the decisions that he made.
“Masking. Six feet distancing. The closing of businesses. Forcing businesses to push those mandates upon people like me and others.”