“I Apologize, Oh My God”: Stephen A. Smith Mistakenly Refers To NFL WR As “Charlie Kirk” During Texans/Steelers Playoff Recap

Stephen A. Smith might be having a hard time keeping his sports commentary and political commentary separate.

ESPN analyst, podcast host and debate master Stephen A. Smith has become more outspoken about politics as of late, and that all comes as reports suggest he’s not necessarily ruling out a presidential run. For the longest time – and despite being courted by politicians to consider running – Smith has insisted that he enjoys the line of work he is in (yelling about sports) too much to give it up.

Only time will tell if Stephen A. actually make the jump in full-fledged politics. At the very least, he’s already ventured into the political commentary sphere, and has been very active in having conversations and discourse about the current political state of the United States. He even debuted his new political show “Straight Shooter with Stephen A.” back in September of 2025, which airs on SiriusXM.

Let me paint a picture (or rather just lay out Stephen A.’s schedule) of just how busy Smith is on a regular weekday. He does First Take for ESPN from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. EST, hops on MadDog Sports Radio for The Stephen A. Smith Show from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., and he’s now adding his political commentary show, Straight Shooter with Stephen A., from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. That right there is 6 hours of Stephen A. Smith talking every single day… and it doesn’t even account for the other places that he pops up in.

Straight Shooter is the newest endeavor for Stephen A., and the show shares the same name of the book that he released back in 2023. It’s not exactly a surprising move, since it has seemed as though Smith has been headed for some sort of political program for quite some time. The only problem? It looks like that busy and topically diversified schedule is catching up to him.

While he was on First Take this morning breaking down the Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston Texans game from last night, Stephen A. Smith tore into the Mike Tomlin-coached team, and the lackluster performance from both quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers defense as a whole.

When Smith went to recall a scathing stat against the Steelers defense, he accidentally mixed up Texans receiver Christian Kirk and the late political commentator Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated on September 10, 2025 while speaking in Utah at a college campus.

Admittedly, the names are close… I’ll give Stephen A. Smith that. But I think it’s clear that his political commentary is starting to seep into his sports takes, no matter how hard he tries to keep them all separate. One of his co-hosts on First Take quickly corrected him, and Stephen A. was taken back by his mistake:

“We saw Charlie Kirk catch 8 receptions for 144 yards…I apologize. Oh my God. Christian Kirk.”

An all time Freudian slip.

Tough to see Stephen A. Smith get his wires crossed like that. As it turns out, the man is human… he can make mistakes. And mixing up a Texans wide receiver with the late Charlie Kirk is certainly a mistake.The post “I Apologize, Oh My God”: Stephen A. Smith Mistakenly Refers To NFL WR As “Charlie Kirk” During Texans/Steelers Playoff Recap first appeared on Whiskey Riff.