{"id":1051421,"date":"2026-11-10T23:57:21","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T23:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1051421\/"},"modified":"2026-11-10T23:57:21","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T23:57:21","slug":"ohio-state-reporter-doubles-down-after-criticizing-jeremiah-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1051421\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio State reporter doubles down after criticizing Jeremiah Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Longtime Ohio State reporter and insider Jeremy Birmingham caused quite a stir over the weekend when he called Ohio State star Jeremiah Smith a \u201cpetulant child\u201d after the superstar wide receiver was visibly frustrated during the team\u2019s blowout loss to Oregon. Now, the Columbus radio host is walking back his word choice, but doubling down on his larger point.<\/p>\n<p>After Ohio State\u2019s 41-28 loss to Oregon on Saturday, Birmingham <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/college-football\/ohio-state-reporter-calls-jeremiah-smith-a-petulant-child-after-his-visible-frustration.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ripped Smith<\/a> on 97.1 The Fan\u2019s Snap Judgments for his visible frustration and emotion during the loss.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou cannot be the best player in the country and a captain and all of the things that Jeremiah Smith is and go stomping down the field like a petulant child,\u201d Birmingham said.<\/p>\n<p>While the longtime Ohio State insider admitted that he could have chosen his words better, he made it clear that he still stands by the substance of his criticism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is what it is,\u201d Birmingham <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/IceShark8\/status\/2120167813226909841?a=jHCAKbHF7qdP94LOuvQ&amp;s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">said of the criticism that he received<\/a> on the Austin &amp; Birm show on 97.1 The Fan. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s unfortunate. I know that there\u2019s a lot of negativity swirling around a comment that I made about Jeremiah Smith and how I felt that he responded in a moment when the rest of the team was gathered, and he was not. I probably should have used better terms or been a little bit more in depth in explaining my point, but ultimately, I think it comes down to, my opinion is that if your team captain and your best leader is not leading at the moment that the team needs it, that\u2019s a bad look. And I\u2019m not going to back down from that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That said, Birmingham also had plenty of praise for Smith, saying that the star receiver has been \u201cexemplary across the board\u201d in his three years with the program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s the best player in college football. He is someone who I\u2019ve said is the best player in Ohio State football history,\u201d Birmingham said. \u201cI said two weeks ago, they [should] just give him the Heisman now because it\u2019s going to be unfair what is going to happen statistically to him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While he stood by his larger point, he did concede that calling him a \u201cpetulant child\u201d crossed the line.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI should have done a better job of getting my point across and saying it in a more cogent way, as opposed to just saying that he was stomping around like a petulant child. That\u2019s probably the wrong term. It is the wrong term. He\u2019s entitled to being frustrated,\u201d Birmingham said. \u201cAs a leader, I just don\u2019t think that\u2019s the productive way to handle it on the field. And I\u2019m not going to apologize for that point because I don\u2019t think that that\u2019s instructive for young guys. I don\u2019t think it helps Luke Fahey.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Longtime Ohio State reporter and insider Jeremy Birmingham caused quite a stir over the weekend when he called&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1051422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,2233,135710,49,48,69],"class_list":["post-1051421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-jeremiah-smith","tag-jeremy-birmingham","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ohio-state-buckeyes"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117594858664332196","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1051421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1051422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1051421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1051421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1051421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}