Michael Anthony Smith II (born August 1, 1979) is an American sports journalist, best known for his time as an

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

commentator and host. He is currently the co-host of the

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera ''Pavo (genus), Pavo'' and ''Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female pea ...

sports talk show ''Brother From Another''.

Career

Smith covered the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

and the NFL from 2001 to 2004 as a reporter for ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

''. He then joined ESPN full-time in September 2004 as a senior writer for

ESPN.com ESPN.com is the official website of ESPN. It is owned by ESPN Internet Ventures, a division of ESPN Inc. History Since launching in April 1995 as ESPNET.SportsZone.com (ESPNET SportsZone), the website has developed numerous sections including ...

and an NFL Insider for

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is a daily sports news television show, television program that serves as the flagship program and brand of United States, American cable television, cable and satellite television television network, network ESPN. The show ...

and

NFL Live ''NFL Live'' (stylized as ''NFL Live presented by Autotrader'' for sponsorship reasons) is an American National Football League (NFL) studio show, currently airing Monday through Friday at 3:00 p.m ET on sports cable channel ESPN. Formerly know ...

. He also offered reporting and commentary on various ESPN and

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

studio shows, as well as for

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN". ...

. Smith was an original correspondent for E:60, which launched in 2007. In 2009, Smith transitioned to anchoring and guest hosting such programs as ''

Mike & Mike ''Mike & Mike'' (formerly ''Mike and Mike in the Morning'') was an American sports-talk radio show that was hosted by Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic on ESPN networks from 2000–2017. The show aired on ESPN Radio, and was simulcast on televis ...

, First Take, SportsNation,

Outside the Lines ''Outside the Lines'', or also referred to as ''OTL'', is an American television program on ESPN that looks "outside the lines" and examines critical issues in mostly American sports on and off the field of play. The primary host of the show is ...

, NFL Live,'' and ''

College Football Live ''College Football Live'' is a show that airs weekdays during the college football season on ESPN or ESPN2, and ESPNU. Its premiere was on Monday, July 23, 2007. Wendi Nix serves as the lead host, and it also features ESPN college football analyst ...

''. From 2011 to 2014, he hosted ''

Numbers Never Lie ''His & Hers'' was a sports discussion show hosted by Michael Smith and Jemele Hill who have each appeared on Highly Questionable as a co host but not together; it was televised by ESPN2 as part of its weekday lineup of studio programs. Originall ...

'' every weekday on ESPN2. He co-hosted ESPN '' SC6'' with

Jemele Hill Jemele Juanita Hill (; born 1975) is an American sports journalist who writes for ''The Atlantic''. She worked nearly 12 years for sports conglomerate ESPN. She wrote a column for ESPN.com's Page 2 and formerly hosted ESPN's '' His and Hers''. ...

as well as the weekly '' His & Hers Podcast'' on

and

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

. Also, Smith was a regular panelist on ESPN's ''

Around the Horn ''Around the Horn'' (''ATH'') is an American sports Round table (discussion), roundtable discussion show, conducted in the style of a panel game, produced by ESPN. The show premiered on November 4, 2002, as a replacement for ''Unscripted with C ...

''. Smith's tenure at ESPN covered 15 years; he left the network in 2019, after reaching a contract buyout agreement with the network. In August 2020, Smith co-founded Inflection Point Entertainment, a multimedia company. He appeared in and served as an executive producer on the 2021 feature film, ''

National Champions National champions are corporations which are technically private businesses but due to governmental policy are ceded a dominant position in a national economy. In this system, these large organizations are expected not only to seek profit but als ...

''. On September 14, 2020, Smith joined

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...

to co-host a new show with

Michael Holley Michael S. Holley (born February 26, 1970) is an American television and radio sports commentator, sports reporter and author. He formerly wrote columns for the ''Boston Globe'', ''Chicago Tribune'', ''The Plain Dealer'', and '' Akron Beacon Jo ...

, ''Brother From Another'', on

. In 2022, Amazon named Smith as a correspondent for ''

Thursday Night Football ''Thursday Night Football'' (often abbreviated as ''TNF'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that broadcast primarily on Thursday nights. Most of the games kick off at 8:15 Eastern Time (8:20 prior to 20 ...

''.

References

External links

* *Michael Smith On Leaving ESPN and His New Entertainment Company, Inflection Point on GQ 1979 births Living people American sportswriters The Boston Globe people Loyola University New Orleans alumni Writers from New Orleans {{US-tv-bio-stub