Transcript
Greg Rosenthal (0:00)
What's up everyone? It's Greg Rosenthal and I'm teaming up with the King of Spring, Daniel Jeremiah. He requires me to say that we're going to be bringing you 40s and free agents, the only podcast you'll need this NFL draft season. From DJs mock drafts to my top 101, free agents will have it covered for you with all new episodes every Thursday keeping you up to date as we head to the NFL Draft. Listen to 40s and free agents starting on March 6th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Julie Swearbinks (0:30)
What's up everyone? Julie Swerbinks here along with former NHL player Nate Thompson.
Nate Thompson (0:35)
We're doing a new podcast together. Here we go.
Julie Swearbinks (0:38)
The name Energy Line with Nate and jsb.
Nate Thompson (0:41)
Each week we'll get together and talk about hockey life. All topics are fair game, right?
Julie Swearbinks (0:46)
Exactly. And you'll never know who will drop by to join us.
Nate Thompson (0:50)
Julia's pretty well connected. She has text threads going that you wouldn't believe.
Julie Swearbinks (0:55)
Listen to Energy Line with Nate and jsb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Stephen A. Smith (1:14)
What's up everybody?
Stephen A. Smith (1:16)
Welcome to the latest edition of the Stephen A. Smith show coming at you over the Digital Airways of YouTube and of course iHeartRadio. As I love to do at the very least three times a week, I want to thank y'all as always for supporting the show, particularly on YouTube where I've now eclipsed over 972,000 subscribers, rapidly approaching 1 million subscribers. Of course, I've had over a few million downloads on iHeartRadio over the last several months as well. Thank you so much for continuing to love and support the show. I really, really appreciate it from the bottom of my heart to continue to like and follow the show. Just click the bell to get notified for all of our new content and you too shall be considered the latest member of of the Stephen A. Smith show family. While you're doing that, it is the Christmas holidays after all, and I've got a New York Times best selling book out Straight Shooter, A memoir of Second Chances and First Takes now in paperback. Just go to straightshooterbook.com to get yourself a copy of that. Once again, that's straightshooterbook.com to get yourself a copy. It is not a sports book. It is a book about me, my life, my trials and tribulations and how motivational and inspirational I hope it can be to a lot of people out there who see no light at the end of the tunnel. But once you persevere and you continue to march on and climb, you'd be surprised what you end up discovering about yourself. If I sound somber, it's because I've got good reason to. And it's not because I'm sitting here before you, sick, you know, battling allergies and all of that stuff. Scratchy throat and everything like that. Winter season, traveling a lot. Obviously my health is not pristine, but I'm okay. Okay enough to be here. The somber tone is because of the news, some tragic news that broke just a few hours ago in the state of Wisconsin. A school shooting that left at least three people dead, including who police suspect is a juvenile shooter. Six others were wounded in the incident that happened at Abundant Life Christian School this morning in Madison, Wisconsin. Madison Police Chief Sean Barnes said officers who responded to a call of an active shooter at the school also found the alleged shooter dead at the scene. The suspected shooter was also a student at the school. Initial police reports said the fatalities included four victims plus the shooter. But later they lowered the number of fatalities. It's sad. It's Christmas time and there are folks who have lost loved ones. What appears to be another senseless shooting. Now, see, this is the kind of stuff that I was talking about, you know, one of the most riveting moments in my life, something that affected me. And I don't cry often, to be quite honest with you. It's just not something that I've, that I've done much of in my lifetime. I can count on one hand the amount of times tears have come streaming down my face. And I remember one of those times being when those little kids at Sandy Hook in Connecticut when Obama was in office were killed. I think it was like 21 deaths, if I remember correctly. 19 of them were children. And when you heard the descriptions of how the shooter would go one by one and would shoot a six or seven year old right in front of others their age, with those little kids knowing that they were next, it can't get more heinous than that. And so naturally, stuff like that ultimately ends up getting politicized. And people start talking about gun control or gun laws and that forces the other side to fight for their second Amendment rights. And what gets lost in the shuffle are lives lost, lives lost. And how somehow, some way, human beings who are supposed to have a heart and are supposed to have a soul can't seem to come together for the betterment of the most helpless amongst us, which are children. And when I heard the story about what transpired in Madison, Wisconsin this morning. It's a Catholic school. K to 12. We don't know yet the name. I'm sorry, it's a Christian school. I apologize. K to 12. We don't know yet the age of the victims at the moment that we're taping this show. K to 12, ladies and gentlemen. It could be a 6 or 7 year old, it could be a 9 or 10 year old. Lives lost are heinous enough at the hands of somebody who felt like being a murderer. But let's face reality. When it involves kids, it stings us a bit more significantly. And that's the kind of thing that we have to think about. And so yes, this is a show that tackles all issues. We run from nothing and we talk about everything. We try to be as informed as we possibly can. If we make mistakes, we own up to it. If we don't have all the facts, all the information necessary, we own up to that as well. But there are some things that you don't need but so much information when you find out that kids were killed, that's the bottom line and something has to be done about it. Now, I'm one of those people that I will openly confess as a registered independent. I'm stuck. On one hand, I want guns off the streets. On another hand, I'm tired of people being killed. And then we turn around and find out that folks were utterly defenseless because they weren't armed. Now obviously that's not going to be applicable in a Christian school. K to 12. What would teenagers or people that are younger be walking around with firearms for? I get that part. But how the hell that that person have a firearm and get in the school? And why was there no one there to derail that individual? Is anybody, Was anybody in the school? Arm? We don't know. We don't know the facts of that information as of yet or that situation as of yet. But those are the kind of things to me that should be debated. Whether or not having a firearm on your person is more helpful or harmful. Those are the kind of things that should be debated. I'm not getting into somebody's rights because to me, even though rights are important, it pales in comparison to someone's life. Rights are important, but not at the expense of the lives of human beings, particularly the youngest amongst us who haven't even had an opportunity to really, really live their lives as of yet. And so at least two to three people have been stripped of their life because of a juvenile shooter. Who I think is okay to call a murderer because that person killed innocent people. We don't know the gender of the shooter. We don't know the age of the shooter. We don't know the description of the shooter. We don't know the age or the descriptions or the genders of the victims. We don't know whether there was teachers killed. We don't know whether there was a police officer killed, somebody in security. We don't know all of those details at the time of this taping. That much is true. We don't know those things. And I get that and I understand it. And we have to find out more. In Sandy hook, it was 20 children, six adults. I'm going to say that again. 20 children were killed. And I remember that being politicized. I remember when President Obama at the time stood at the podium and said the name of each child and wiped a tear from his eye. And you had folks on the right accusing him of being inauthentic and phony. Like our core decency sometimes escapes us. Because I don't give a damn what your political affiliation is, what your ideology is, what your religion is, et cetera. When you hear that 20 children were killed in cold blood, it's got to hit you. And anytime I hear about a school shooting, particularly involving K to anything, let alone K to 12, I'm thinking about Sandy Hook. That's what it reminds me of. And I piggyback off of that conversation to get to this point, a point that I was discussing last week, and that was with folks online and other places celebrating the shooting of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Mr. Thompson. That was disgusting. It was appalling. And I've got people that want to come on this show to talk with me and debate me. Well, bring it on. But be prepared to sit there on a set, sitting across from me with the cameras rolling, justifying murder. Because that, in essence, is what it comes down to. I'm not throwing flowers or acting like the health care system isn't an atrocity, that it's right in any way to take advantage of American citizens. And beyond denying their cases when they.