That’s right, Derek Carr actually took to Twitter to challenge Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman to an octagon fight.
To the surprise of not many people, the Oakland Raiders turned in a wildly disappointing 4-12 season during the first year of Jon Gruden’s return as head coach.
There is no way to sugarcoat the 2018 Raiders. They were a really bad football team, the worst in the AFC and arguably the entire NFL. Additionally, quarterback Derek Carr didn’t have much of a season to brag about this year, ranking 27th out of 33 quarterbacks with a total QBR of 49.0.
But even still, Carr apparently was very bothered by the idea of ESPN television personalities Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman, the hosts of ESPN First Take, talking negatively about the Raiders. Carr initially called them out on Twitter while responding to a fan’s tweet, but then things just escalated from there.
After his first rant, Carr then tweeted at the official UFC account, as well as UFC president Dana White, asking if there was a way he could challenge Smith and Kellerman to an octagon fight. He said they should create a business where pro athletes can challenge TV personalities to fight in the octagon, I guess as a way of “teaching them a lesson.”
Yeah, that actually happened.
This is certainly some bizarre behavior by Carr, and it’s probably something he will end up regretting later. He’s been a professional athlete for five years now, and should probably be used to media scrutiny at this point. Scrutiny and criticism are basically a given on First Take, as Smith and Kellerman are notorious for that kind of thing.
As expected, Smith had a pretty typical response to Carr’s statements, going on a rant of his own about how Carr’s NFL career to this point hasn’t exactly been spectacular.
Whether you agree with Carr, or you agree with Smith and Kellerman, you certainly can’t deny that this kind of content makes for a very interesting TV segment.