\u201cHonestly, I\u2019m not a religious person, but I pray for the downfall. I really do.<\/p>\n
![\"Michelle](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/beadle.jpg\")
Michelle Beadle ripped Stephen A. Smith on her and Cody Decker\u2019s podcast, \u201cBeadle and Decker,\u201d over Smith promoting a Solitaire game after he was caught playing Solitaire while on assignment at an 2025 NBA Finals. YouTube\/Beadle & Decker<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s gross, man. You gotta have principles in this thing.\u201d <\/p>\n
On Monday, Papaya Gaming named Smith the\u00a0company\u2019s official ambassador<\/a>\u00a0for the first ever World Solitaire Championship in February.<\/p>\n It comes after Smith went viral for playing solitaire<\/a>\u00a0on his phone at Game 4 of the NBA Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers,\u00a0which he was covering for ESPN.<\/p>\n Smith posted an\u00a0AI-generated ad<\/a>\u00a0on social media Monday that spoofed his NBA Finals moment to promote Papaya\u2019s mobile game Solitaire Cash.<\/p>\n \u201cESPN pays him a gazillion dollars to get a lot of stuff wrong and yell,\u201d Beadle, who left ESPN in 2019, said. \u201cHe gets caught playing solitaire during the NBA freaking Finals, the thing he\u2019s an expert in.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 He made you look like fools for handing him a blank check in the first place, because doesn\u2019t even give a s\u2013t about the stuff that he\u2019s paid a gazillion dollars to talk about. Now he\u2019s turning around and turning that into a money-making opportunity\u2026 and it looks like a fraudulent crap business to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cFirst Take\u201d host, who is also executive producer on the show, is making $21 million on his new deal with ESPN. <\/p>\n Beadle said the Worldwide Leader is at fault for \u201ccreating this monster that\u2019s bigger than you now\u201d because the company \u201clet [Smith] run rampant.\u201d<\/p>\n She added that on her last day on \u201cGet Up,\u201d ESPN\u2019s daily morning talk show, ESPN aired promos for Smith appearing on the show as she received a goodbye on-air from the show\u2019s host, Mike Greenberg.<\/p>\n Beadle hasn\u2019t sugarcoated her opinions of Smith for years.<\/p>\n The former ESPNer publicly ripped Smith<\/a> \u2014 saying she doesn\u2019t respect him, among other things \u2014 after the reveal that he would replace her time slot on Mad Dog Sports Radio with his new Sirius XM show, which launched this September.<\/p>\n Beadle, who previously hosted ESPN\u2019s \u201cNBA Countdown,\u201d is the host of \u201cRun It Back,\u201d an NBA-focused talk show on FanDuel TV with former players Chandler Parsons and Lou Williams.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n In documents obtained by Front Office Sports, the lawsuit states that Papaya committed fraud through false advertising between 2019 and \u201cat least November 2023,\u201d using bots \u201cmasquerading as human players\u201d in games where human players had money on the line, unfairly making it impossible for users to succeed.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt is undisputed that Papaya used tailored bots to control the outcomes of tournaments,\u201d a judge wrote in an Oct. 27 opinion. \u201cBy doing so, Papaya could prevent players from winning \u2013- or allow them to win \u2014 no matter how they performed in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Papaya has filed counterclaims in the lawsuit. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Stephen](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/stephen-smith-speaks-broadcasts-siriusxm-114732072.jpg\")
Stephen A. Smith broadcasting his SiriusXM Mad Dog Sports Radio Show live from Dallas before Monday Night Football in Arlington on November 3, 2025. Getty Images for SiriusXM<\/p>\n