{"id":473027,"date":"2023-06-14T12:30:18","date_gmt":"2023-06-14T16:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/?p=473027"},"modified":"2023-06-14T12:30:18","modified_gmt":"2023-06-14T16:30:18","slug":"chris-russo-stephen-a-smith-aaron-rodgers-joe-namath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/espn\/chris-russo-stephen-a-smith-aaron-rodgers-joe-namath.html","title":{"rendered":"Chris Russo dubs Stephen A. Smith&#8217;s Aaron Rodgers-Joe Namath comparison his &#8216;worst take&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Stephen A. Smith made the mistake of spurning Joe Namath on <em>First Take<\/em>. And ESPN\u2019s foremost voice on sports history won\u2019t stand for it.<\/p>\n<p>Monday morning, Smith boldly claimed Aaron Rodgers would usurp Namath on the pantheon of New York Jets greats if he can lead the team to their second Super Bowl victory in franchise history. Even as a hypothetical discussion, this is silly considering the level of imagination it takes to assume the Jets will be imminent Super Bowl champions. Still, the possibility of ranking Rodgers&#8217; Jets career over Namath\u2019s was a take Russo couldn\u2019t ignore.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/e5NfzVEwtwY\" width=\"760\" height=\"430\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><br \/>\n\u201cI can\u2019t believe that I\u2019m having my bagel and a banana and I\u2019m putting on <em>First Take<\/em> yesterday and I got the host sitting here comparing Aaron Rodgers to Joe Willie Namath,\u201d Russo said during his Tuesday appearance on the show. \u201cI know prior to 1996, maybe a little shaky historically,\u201d Russo noted of Smith, \u201cBut this is absurd.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Smith made the declaration, it received immediate pushback from Molly Qerim and Dan Orlovsky, both of whom couldn\u2019t wait for Russo to watch the segment. Maybe it should be telling that even Orlovsky, who <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/espn\/stephen-a-smith-dan-orlovsky-joe-montana-snub.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">didn\u2019t rank Joe Montana among his list of all-time great quarterbacks<\/a>, thought it was bonkers to consider Rodgers usurping Namath\u2019s standing with the Jets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s an original New York freakin Jet!\u201d Russo ranted. \u201cAaron Rodgers, the carpetbagger, who\u2019s all of a sudden at the Tonys, Taylor Swift, Ranger hockey. What do they do in Green Bay? He must have been bored stiff because he\u2019s doing everything here. But now Rodgers\u2026we\u2019re gonna compare him as a Jets fan to Joe Namath?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve said dumb things,\u201d Russo admitted. \u201cThat\u2019s as dumb a comment as I\u2019ve ever heard in my life. Comparing him to Joe Willie Namath if you are a Jets fan! Worst take, I couldn\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, Rodgers, who hasn\u2019t yet thrown a pass for the Jets, doesn\u2019t outrank Namath in New York sports history yet. But if we\u2019re playing the hypothetical game anyway, there has to be a point where Russo would agree Smith\u2019s comment is no longer dumb.<\/p>\n<p>If we\u2019re going to hypothetically assume Rodgers wins one Super Bowl, why stop there? Why not assume Rodgers wins two Super Bowls with the Jets, or even three? At some point, with enough Super Bowls under his championship belt, even Russo and his appreciation for history would have to admit Rodgers should replace Namath as the greatest Jet of all time. But that time isn&#8217;t yet.<\/p>\n<p>[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=e5NfzVEwtwY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">First Take<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stephen A. Smith made the mistake of spurning Joe Namath on First Take. And ESPN\u2019s foremost voice on sports history won\u2019t stand for it. Monday morning, Smith boldly claimed Aaron Rodgers would usurp Namath on the pantheon of New York Jets greats if he can lead the team to their second Super Bowl victory in <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/espn\/chris-russo-stephen-a-smith-aaron-rodgers-joe-namath.html\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2095,"featured_media":473045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[5363,1012],"tags":[569,463,61,4443,541,189],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v20.9 (Yoast SEO v20.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Chris Russo rips Stephen A. Smith\u2019s Aaron Rodgers-Joe Namath take<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stephen A. Smith made the mistake of spurning Joe Namath on First Take. And Chris Russo wasn&#039;t happy with it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/espn\/chris-russo-stephen-a-smith-aaron-rodgers-joe-namath.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chris Russo dubs Stephen A. Smith&#039;s Aaron Rodgers-Joe Namath comparison his &#039;worst take&#039;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Stephen A. Smith made the mistake of spurning Joe Namath on First Take. And Chris Russo wasn&#039;t happy with it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/espn\/chris-russo-stephen-a-smith-aaron-rodgers-joe-namath.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Awful Announcing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-14T16:30:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2023\/06\/Screen-Shot-2023-06-14-at-11.46.18-AM-scaled-e1686757657829.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"844\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brandon Contes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/BrandonContes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brandon Contes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/espn\/chris-russo-stephen-a-smith-aaron-rodgers-joe-namath.html#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/espn\/chris-russo-stephen-a-smith-aaron-rodgers-joe-namath.html\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brandon Contes\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7eb9e84f83beed54fc3ab769a9d2b2a4\"},\"headline\":\"Chris Russo dubs Stephen A. 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