Stephen A. Smith got his names mixed up in a pretty awful way on Tuesday.
The ESPN personality Smith was speaking live on “First Take” about the Houston Texans’ Wild Card playoff game victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers the night before. While attempting to discuss the performance of Texans wide receiver Christian Kirk, who caught eight passes for 144 yards and a touchdown, Smith accidentally said “Charlie Kirk” instead.
Smith didn’t even realize his error initially until his co-hosts pointed it out. As a result, Smith immediately began to apologize profusely.
Here is the video.
"We saw Charlie Kirk catch 8 receptions for 144 yards…I apologize. Oh my God. Christian Kirk" – Stephen A. Smith pic.twitter.com/PPQXMjXFEr
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 13, 2026
Charlie Kirk is the late conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA who was publicly assassinated in Sept. 2025. Kirk’s killing sparked tributes from some professional sports teams and also led to multiple firings in the sports world over their reactions to his death.
As for Smith, he is notorious for making these kinds of mistakes live on the air and made a bad one several months back about his own beloved New York Knicks. Meanwhile, it seemed like ESPN could not get anything right about the Texans-Steelers playoff game as they also aired an awful goof in the game about Houston safety Jimmie Ward.
