As we noted earlier today, yesterday’s arrival of the Stephen A. Smith personal website/blog to the internet came, as expected, with plenty of anti-SAS commenters along for the ride.

At one point, the comments turned ugly, racist and downright nasty. According to Smith, who spoke to the Daily Examiner via cell phone from Dallas, they’ll be coming down today — but they won’t discourage him from posting more frequently. He tells us the site is being run by friends and family members, and has been in the works for a couple of years. And — he plans to blog on it two to three times a week. (more…)

Although he’s yet to make his way back into the print world since being ousted from the Inquirer, Stephen A. Smith is back to writing again: on a blog. Amazingly, Smith, a vociferous critic of blogs — most likely because, well, many sports fans actively despise him — entered the fray with a long rant about himself and his work, and what to expect from him in the near future:

Essentially, I’m pretty much in a position to say what I want, when I want, how I want and to whom I damn-well please, which anyone who knows me knows I’ll exercise at any given moment. There will be plenty of time for sounding off in the very near future – about any and all issues that interest me. But here’s my initial warning: Don’t expect my blogs to be limited to SPORTS!!!

Although the blog does have some professional-looking headers on it, it’s obvious Stephen A. still hasn’t mastered the art of comment filtering, since approximately 90 percent of the ones on his initial post come from anonymous, sometimes racist, individuals giving him a venomous welcome to the blog world.

Chances are, given the comments so far, Stephen A. won’t update it very often. Maybe never, actually.

Happy New Year everyone! [Stephen A Blog]
Stephen A. has a blog? [The700Level]

Last night, former Inquirer columnist and current ESPN megaphone Stephen A. Smith made another appearance on Chris Matthews’s political yell-fest Hardball, this time to talk about Sen. Barack Obama’s roundtable debate with John Edwards and Hillary Clinton. Smith was not impressed. In fact, he was “disgusted.” Smith also said he was “totally bored” with Obama’s performance. “I thought Barack Obama took a significant step back,” he scoffed into the camera.

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Former Inquirer sports columnist Stephen A. Smith, ousted from his post late last summer for reasons known only to lawyers and Inky staffers, has assured the Daily Examiner he will disclose anything and everything about his fallout with paper when he can. He wants to, he says, but just can’t, goddammit, due to the still pending legal issues.

Smith’s Inky saga is back in vogue thanks to a recent four-part monster interview with the L.A. Daily News’s Tom Hofarth, who at least wrestled this Inquirer-related bristling out of Smith:

“I am not working there. I can not talk extensively about that because that’s a legal matter. The position they’ve taken is entirely contradictory to what my position is and what I believe we agreed upon. I will say I’m happy to be working at ESPN. I’m proud of the years I had at the Inquirer and the leadership that helped elevate me with 8 different promotions over 13 ½ year period. I wouldn’t be here today if it were not for the opportunity they gave me. Other than that, I know of the agreement we had and I intend to make sure I fulfill it or for someone to give me an explanation as to why that was other than fabricating some bogus stuff about me.”

What, in fact, the Inquirer has “fabricated” about Smith is entirely unclear (maybe the Blackberry reporting? or the assertion that he cared more about TV time than Inky time?), but we’re hopeful that once the smoke clears, it’ll be much more substantial and salacious. Inquirer honcho Bill Marimow didn’t return a phone call for comment.

Stephen A. Smith Q-and-A Part III: Internet writers have sabotage newspapers [Farther off the Wall]

According to sources, today is D-Day for the Stephen A. Smith demotion saga, as the whisper-challenged sports personality is supposed to tell Inquirer brass whether he’ll accept a full-time reporting post. Sources say there’s “no chance” he’ll take the new gig, most likely ending Stephen A.’s connection to this dingy city forever.

On Friday, Smith deflected comment about his Inquirer situation to his high-powered D.C. attorney, Johnine Barnes, who quickly e-mailed off a hilariously vague statement on her firm’s letterhead saying officially that Stephen A. Smith “does not have any comment regarding any of his professional duties and responsibilities.”

One of the sources also says that Smith will be spending plenty more time in the up-and-coming athlete mecca of Orlando — he supposedly owns a home and has a girlfriend down there — which explains his satellite commentary for ESPN from that very location last Thursday.

Barnes did not return an e-mail from the Daily Examiner seeking to confirm the meeting. Inquirer editor Bill Marimow chose not to comment at this time.

Unless there’s an ugly legal flap over the way Smith’s demotion was handled, it appears the whole thing should be resolved very soon.

Stephen A. and the Inky: Lawyering it Up? [Daily Examiner]
Where’s Stephen A.? [Daily News]

The Inquirer’s announcement late yesterday afternoon about columnist Stephen A. Smith’s demotion back to beat reporter caused a stir around the sports media community and has also exposed his massive unpopularity with the local fanbase. Since he became ESPN’s NBA barking dog a couple of years ago, it seems many in the region aren’t going to miss his phoned-in columns to the paper.

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