Stephen A. Smith isn’t just calling it a season for the Milwaukee Brewers.
The high-profile ESPN personality, in the same breath, also says the Milwaukee Bucks and Green Bay Packers don’t have a chance, either.
Oh, and while he didn’t call Milwaukee a terrible city, like he did four years ago, he again threw a bit of shade.
This was all in 2 minutes and 23 seconds.
Smith, who hosts a popular morning sports debate show on ESPN, took to his “Stephen A. Smith Show” on YouTube to give his take on not just the Brewers’ struggles in the National League Championship Series against the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers but also how he feels other Wisconsin sports teams won’t be winning any time soon.
“If you’re a Los Angeles Dodger, you’re on your way back to the World Series,” Smith started. “If you’re a Milwaukee Brewer, chances are you should be prepared to get swept.
“It’s that simple.”
His viewpoint is quite the opposite of Austin Murphy, one of the young sons of Brewers manager Pat Murphy, who still has belief.
But based on how the first two games went in Milwaukee on Oct. 13 and 14, it’s hard to argue with Smith.
The Brewers managed just two total runs and five hits across Games 1 and 2 in falling behind, 0-2, in the best-of-seven series. The Dodgers’ two starting pitchers have owned Brewers hitters, covering 17 of a possible 18 innings, striking out 17 and allowing just one run. Blake Snell delivered a pitching performance for the ages in Game 1 and Yoshinobu Yamamoto followed it with a complete-game gem.
To his credit, Smith complimented Brewers fans. But he couldn’t just leave it at that.
“Did you see how hyped the fans were in Milwaukee?” Smith said about Game 2. “Because, let’s call it what it is, there ain’t a lot to do in Milwaukee. It’s a great city, great sports town, great fan base, but there ain’t a lot to do.
“These moments are cherished. Because you’re not going to get so many of them.”
That is true. The Brewers are playing in a league championship series for just the fourth time in franchise history, though three have come in the last 15 years. They’ve played in only one World Series and that came 43 years ago. They don’t regularly get this close to the World Series like the Dodgers do seemingly every year.
Smith, whose takes run far and wide, also sounded off on the Bucks and Packers.
Unlike the Brewers in 2025, “it’s not like you’re expecting the Milwaukee Bucks to win a championship,” said Smith, a longtime NBA reporter and analyst. “They’re not a championship team in Milwaukee.”
We’ll see about that when the Bucks’ new season begins Oct. 22.
And while the Packers are seeded second in the NFC with a 3-1-1 record, Smith said their defensive showing against the Dallas Cowboys a few weeks ago told him everything he needed to know about Matt LaFleur’s team in 2025.
“The football team in Green Bay … you no longer have Super Bowl aspirations for them,” Smith said.
Given all that, Smith said, “you’re looking at the Brewers, who walked into this series, this NLCS, 6-0 against the Dodgers this season. … The fact is they gave every reason to believe that they were going to be successful or at least this was going to be a seven-game series and, two games in, we already know it’s over.
“This series is over. This series is over. The only question mark that exists right now is whether or not it’s going be a sweep.”
The Brewers look to get on the board in this series with Game 3 of the NLCS on Thursday, Oct. 16, at Dodger Stadium.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Stephen A. Smith throws shade at city of Milwaukee as he declares Brewers’ NLCS with Dodgers over
Reporting by Christopher Kuhagen, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
