Stephen A. Smith said he would sign divorce papers and walk out on his wife if she did what Serena Williams did during the Super Bowl 2025 halftime show.
The outspoken ESPN analyst said he wouldn’t be able to handle stepping into the shoes of Alexis Ohanian, Serena’s husband.
“Clearly you don’t belong with me,” he said during a Feb. 10 episode of the First Take podcast.
Stephen A. Smith claimed he would divorce Serena Williams for her 2025 Super Bowl halftime performance
His remarks came after the tennis player made a special guest appearance in Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl LIX halftime performance on Sunday, February 9.
Both Kendrick and Serena have roots in the city of Compton.
The sports icon was captured crip-walking as Kendrick performed Not Like Us—the Grammy-winning diss track that targeted his rap rival Drake.
Serena and Drake were romantically involved in the 2010s, and the Canadian rapper has confessed that his 2016 single Too Good was inspired by her.
When Stephen weighed in on the halftime show, he questioned why Serena was “trolling” her ex in front of millions of viewers.
“If I’m your husband, I’m thinking, ‘Why are you up there trolling him—trolling your ex?’” he said.
The ESPN analyst said he wouldn’t be with someone if he caught them “trolling” their ex
“If I’m married, and my wife is going to troll her ex—go back to his a**,” he added. “Because clearly you don’t belong with me. What you worried about him for—and you with me?”
The sports correspondent highlighted that SZA—who joined as a special guest during Kendrick’s halftime performance—also dated Drake.
Stephen’s comments were widely criticized online, with one commenter saying, “Her husband was like, ‘glad you went to diss your ex on national TV.’”
Image credits: NFL on ESPN
“You don’t get to tell a grown woman what she can or cannot do,” read a second comment.
“Her and her billionaire husband are laughing all the way to the bank!” a third wrote.
A fourth said, “Sad that they thought her dancing was about Drake, they missed the message.”
Drake, who was romantically involved with the tennis legend in the 2010s, said she inspired his song Too Good
Hollywood star Whoopi Goldberg also slammed Stephen’s remarks.
“Why wasn’t it, ‘Damn, Serena was great’? Why is it about some ex-boyfriend she hasn’t thought of?” said The View co-host on the show.
She said she couldn’t understand why Stephen would bring back “some old stuff” and think Serena’s appearance had anything to do with the Canadian rapper.
Whoopi Goldberg slammed Stephen’s comments and asked, “Why would you think she’s not smart enough?”
Image credits: The View
“Why would you think she’s not smart enough?” Whoopi asked.
Following the halftime show, Serena’s husband Alexis took to X to praise the performance.
“Pretty fantastic halftime show,” said the Reddit founder, who has been married to Serena since 2017.
Alexis Ohanian, Serena’s husband since 2017, praised the Super Bowl halftime show
Kendrick’s headline performance at the Super Bowl wasn’t the first time fans saw Serena dancing to Not Like Us. She crip-walked to the same track and roasted Drake during the 2024 ESPY Awards.
“If I’ve learned anything this year, it’s that none of us, not a single one of us, not even me, should ever pick a fight with Kendrick Lamar,” she said.
“He will make your hometown not like you, the next time Drake sits courtside at a Raptors game, they’re gonna Forrest Gump him, seats taken,” she added.
Serena’s Super Bowl performance may have reminded some fans of another dance she performed more than a decade ago.
She sparked controversy for crip-walking while celebrating her gold medal after defeating Maria Sharapova at the London Olympics in 2012.
Her celebratory dance was branded as racist by some, and critics claimed it “glorified gang culture.”
The crip walk, believed to have been created in the ’70s by members of LA street gang the Crips, was later adopted by the hip-hop community.
The sports icon sparked controversy for a similar dance at the London Olympics in 2012
“It was just a dance,” Serena said during a press conference at the time.
Following her 2025 Super Bowl appearance, the tennis legend alluded to her Wimbledon controversy in a backstage video.
“Man I did not crip walk like that at Wimbledon,” she excitedly said. “Oh, I would’ve been fined.”
“It was all love,” she added.
“Some of y’all have no idea how criticized Serena was for this same dance,” Alexis wrote on X
In her Instagram post, Serena shared clips of herself getting ready for her brief but big performance during the halftime show.
It was the “best 10 seconds of my life,” she later said about her moment in the Super Bowl spotlight.
When Kendrick and his team initially reached out to her, they said they “loved” her crip walk at the Olympics, Serena wrote in the caption accompanying the video.
“When in the world would I ever be able to dance at a superbowl? (Never) let’s do it!” she continued.
“I knew my winning dance after the @olympics would pay off one day,” she added. “End of story.”
Alexis, who shares two daughters with the winner of 23 Grand Slam singles titles, also acknowledged the Wimbledon controversy after the Super Bowl halftime show.
“Some of y’all have no idea how criticized Serena was for this same dance at Wimbledon 13 years ago and it shows,” he wrote on X. “This is bigger than the music.”
“ESPN should divorce him from his contract,” a social media user said about Stephen’s remarks
