Social media users say ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith committed a foul on Friday’s episode of First Take, as he made a raunchy comment toward fellow commentator Chiney Ogwumike.

The offending moment happened after Ogwumike, a former WNBA star, broke into French as she praised the “magnifique” performance of NBA player Rudy Gobert.

“I gotta get a little personal for a second here,” Smith responded. “Listen, I’m living the good life. I’m pretty damn happy, to say the least. But I must admit, in all my years on this earth, I’ve never dated a woman from France or anything like that. But after hearing Chiney, I was like, ‘What have I been missing? What have I been missing?’ I mean, that language, that verbiage right there, that kind of turned me on.”

In the moment, Ogwumike laughed and said, “Crazy.” Smith then shifted his focus back to sports.

Coach Jackie J, a popular sports content creator, said on Instagram that Smith committed sexual harassment in the workplace and needs to be fired. And many Instagram users agreed with her, with more than 18,000 liking that post.

“Doesn’t matter if ‘it’s a joke’ or ‘it was lighthearted,’” one user wrote in the comments. “No one should be facing sexual advancements at work.”

Another person wrote, “This gets you fired at *checks notes* every job in America. Someone in a more senior position, too. This is textbook harassment.”

And a third user wrote, “Harassment on live TV in 2026. Not shocking, but still infuriating.”

Former NFL star Terrell Owens also commented on Jackie’s Instagram video. “Guarantee, he’ll make an apology and nothing will be done about it. It’ll be all good,” he wrote, adding a shrugging emoji.

Smith has made controversial comments before. In a 2014 conversation about NFL player Ray Rice’s domestic abuse scandal on First Take, for example, he told women to “[not do anything to provoke wrong actions,” seemingly suggesting that Rice’s wife may have provoked the Baltimore Ravens star’s violence, as Time reported. ESPN suspended Smith for one week over those comments.

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Originally published on tvinsider.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.

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