Stephen A. Smith Accidentally Called A Texans Player "Charlie Kirk"

Stephen A. Smith’s constant juggling of his sports and politics commentary has finally caught up to him, and in the most embarrassing way possible.

On Tuesday morning’s episode of his ESPN show First Take, he was leading a roundtable discussion about Aaron Rodgers’ blowout 31-6 loss in the AFC Wildcard game against the Houston Texans.

While attempting to give receiver Christian Kirk his props, he mentioned Charlie Kirk. Same last name, sure, but very different levels of divisiveness.

“That’s what we saw, we say Charlie Kirk catch eight receptions for 144 yards,” Smith confidently said.

He would have kept going, but host Shae Cornette corrected him, and he immediately recognized the gravity of his mistake.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Christian. I apologized. Oh my god, Christian Kirk,” he said, trying to recover.

Christian Kirk is the 29-year-old Houston Texans wide receiver who had the best game of his season over the weekend, even scoring a receiving touchdown.

But instead of career achievements highlighting his bio, his wiki page now notes that he was once the subject of a very embarrassing Stephen A. Smith blunder.

Charlie Kirk, however, was a right-wing activist and agitator who ran nonprofit Turning Point USA. He was fatally shot in the head while speaking at Utah Valley University back in September. His death led to a deeper conversation about the grey area between free speech and hate speech, and the threat of political violence.

This is only Smith’s latest controversy-ridden moment caused by his commentary. After Renee Good was shot and killed by Minneapolis ICE agents last week, Smith said that “from a lawful perspective,” her death was “completely justified.”

He added that “from a humanitarian perspective,” it could have been avoided, but social media ripped him apart anyway.

Now they’re doing the same for confusing Christian Kirk with Charlie Kirk. See the reactions below.