Why Stephen A. Smith was banned from Phillies’ locker room, per Jonathan Papelbon

Jonathan Papelbon enjoyed an impressive MLB career. He was a six-time All-Star and recorded 368 saves during his time in the big leagues. Papelbon pitched for the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, and Washington Nationals during his career, and recently made an eye-opening Stephen A. Smith admission about his time in Philadelphia.

Papelbon addressed Smith’s alarming comments about Mike Trout’s recent injury. Smith referred to Trout’s injury as “karma” for staying with the Angels in a rant that received no shortage of backlash. Papelbon recalled a story about Smith, who used to work for the Philadelphia Enquirer, while responding to the ESPN analysts’ shocking Trout comments.

“When he makes these kinds of comments (Smith’s comments about Trout’s injury), he truly does not know what he’s talking about,” Papelbon said, via Foul Territory. “And that’s why he makes such asinine comments because he truly doesn’t know… When I was in the Philadelphia Clubhouse we had a traveling secretary… Well I got into this conversation with him about Stephen A Smith one day. I said well how come he never comes in the clubhouse anymore? And he says to me, ‘oh no, we had to kick him out of the clubhouse.’ I said oh really. I said y’all kicked him out of the clubhouse? I said well why did y’all kick him out of the clubhouse?

“And he proceeds to tell me that he (Smith) was doing all kind of shady s**t like going through the manager’s office and when he wasn’t in there going through the training room, pulling out reports and all kind of places he shouldn’t have been. So for me I’ve always looked at this guy like a complete joke and really is just really shady. Real shady guy like when you get kicked out of a Major League clubhouse that means that you should never be able to be a journalist ever again.”

Papelbon makes a Stephen A. Smith accusation

Papelbon had more to say about Smith, however. He said that Smith is “more narcissistic” than Donald Trump.

But that was not the primary accusation Papelbon made against Smith. The former All-Star closer later referred to Smith as a “racist.”

“I look at him as a racist,” Papelbon later said of Smith.

Smith will likely respond to Papelbon’s accusation at some point. There is no question that Smith has enjoyed a tremendous sports media career, but he has received criticism along the way. Papelbon’s comments are more than general criticism about his sports takes, though.

It needs to be noted that Papelbon has no filter. He says exactly what he believes and does not care what anyone thinks about it. Should Papelbon have made such a bold accusation? No, but the former MLB All-Star does not care. And he will be the first one to tell you that he does not care.

In the end, it is an all-around messy situation. Both Stephen A. Smith and Jonathan Papelbon went too far with their comments, and now there is seemingly a budding feud between them.