CLAY: I want to play this clip for you too, Buck. I haven’t even heard this yet. I’ve seen the transcript on it. Stephen A. Smith is the highest paid person at ESPN at —

BUCK: What’s he making? What’s he making?

CLAY: — 12 million a year.

BUCK: Whoof!

CLAY: Twelve million a year at ESPN. Stephen A. Smith makes more money at CNN than any football, basketball, or coach in America, trying to put that into context. That’s a big salary. You talked about earlier how politics is downstream from culture, which I think is well said. Stephen A. Smith yesterday on ESPN argued that every sports league in America should mandate every player have the vaccine. Listen to this.

STEPHEN A. SMITH: This is the thing that drives me nuts. And that’s why I say, I’m so done with people… I’m talking about the athletes, because the NFL, the NBA, it’s a private industry.

MARCUS SPEARS: Yeah.

STEPHEN A. SMITH: You don’t have to play. You’re not entitled to play. I mean, I think it’s shameful when athletes talk about, “Oh, it’s a private matter.” It is not a private matter, because it affects anybody that’s standing right next to you!

MARCUS SPEARS: You’re not living a private life.

STEPHEN A. SMITH: You’re not living a private life!

MARCUS SPEARS: No.

STEPHEN A. SMITH: It’s ridiculous! But this is the thing that’s drives me crazy, and I got to say this. You gonna laugh when I say this, Marcus, ’cause you know I’m on point on this. If I hear one more person, Molly —

MOLLY QERIM ROSE: Mmm-hmm?

STEPHEN A. SMITH: If I hear one more person, Marcus, talk to me about (mock sputtering), “W-w-w-w-what’s in the vaccine?”

MARCUS SPEARS: Oh, my God.

MOLLY QERIM ROSE: Ugh, I know.

STEPHEN A. SMITH: I — I — I — I — I might slap ’em with my phone!

MOLLY QERIM ROSE: I know.

STEPHEN A. SMITH: I can’t take it!

MOLLY QERIM ROSE: I know.

STEPHEN A. SMITH: It’s the biggest damn lie imaginable. It… They’re full of it, and so I’m telling you right now, the NFL… I’m glad the NFL’s made it inconvenient for unvaccinated people.

MOLLY QERIM ROSE: Yes.

STEPHEN A. SMITH: I’m glad the NFL — and the NBA, I’m sorry, had stepped it up. If it were up to me, they wouldn’t even be allowed to play.

BUCK: Clay, so I just want to be clear. It’s “a private matter,” when they’re gonna force you to get a shot, including people who’ve already had covid and they won’t make any exceptions for natural immunity because, you know, that’s science that we’re forced to forget for no apparent good reason. But was it “a private matter” if teams or the league wanted to tell people not to kneel? I have a feeling then, all of a sudden, Mr. Stephen A. Smith has a very different view of the private sector and capitalism at work.

CLAY: It’s a great point. And look, there’s been so much pressure put on players to try to force them to get the vaccine that I think they’re a little bit canary in the coal mines here, because so many Americans out there listening to us right now are getting pressured to get this vaccine who maybe — like you and me, Buck — have already had covid. It’s like we can’t even discuss that fact.

And when you have the highest paid ESPN employee screaming at people, you talked about how it can influence the league. The NFL is watching some of that stuff. The NBA’s watching some of that stuff. When they’ve got the media arguing that they should have vaccine mandates, it makes vaccine mandates more likely. But here’s where it’s blowing up, Buck.

A lot of these athletes are still testing positive ’cause the vaccine doesn’t stop you from getting covid. And the athletes are already under minimal risk. None of them have had serious health conditions. So the fact that you’re trying to lecture us and say that all athletes should be mandated… You know, they never mandated the flu shot. They should be testing less in professional reflects, in my mind, than they are. If you’re sick, stay home, but the actual risk to these athletes is zero.

BUCK: Do you remember when they used to talk about how 40% of cases…? That was the number that was thrown around, and I’m going back now, really, I think over a year.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: Forty percent of cases were asymptomatic.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: You don’t really hear much about this anymore, do you? You don’t hear about the 40% of cases that are asymptomatic. You also… To our conversation yesterday about how this ends, how is it possible that we have a 300% increase in covid cases right now year over year at this point in time when we have 200 million people vaccinated in America?

CLAY: Great question.

BUCK: And no vaccines a year ago. We can all agree there were no vaccines 12 months ago.

CLAY: That’s correct.

BUCK: Now we’ve had 200 million vaccines. We have more cases now? I’ve seen some people try things like (impression), “It’s ’cause they got rid of mask mandates!” No. No. No. It’s cute, but it’s sad at the same time when people try to connect that little Fauci cloth. But there’s no effort, Clay, to even address some of this.

CLAY: Or try to explain it in an intelligent fashion. You’re right. I mean, the fact that we have doubled hospitalizations, the fact that cases have skyrocketed over last year since when Joe Biden was lecturing the White House on how poor of a job they’ve done responding to covid. Well, he’s been in my office almost a year now and he’s doing a worse job. It’s amazing.

BUCK: We got a lot of folks that want to weigh in on this and other things too. We can come back and get into that and close it out with your thoughts from all across the country on this. Man, ESPN, $12 million a year. That’s a good gig.

CLAY: It’s 12 million a year, Buck! Good work if you can get it.

BUCK: I just have to learn something about “the professional sports,” and then maybe I can give this a shot.

CLAY: (laughing)