In the immediate wake of former Vice President Kamala Harris‘s loss to President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, you wouldn’t find too many political pundits with a 2028 Democrat candidate bingo card ready to highlight an ESPN talking head. Still, less than five months into Trump’s second, nonconsecutive term, Stephen A. Smith‘s name is being passed around as a nominee to take on Vice President JD Vance or his Republican 2028 equivalent.

Smith, 57, is a longtime provocateur and gadfly for multiple daily TV and satellite radio sports talk shows. His often solemn and stern evaluation of NBA or NFL events launches heat-seekers to whomever his employers pose opposite him for the argument of the hour. A former sportswriter for the New York Daily News and Philadelphia Inquirer, Smith also vented his controversial rhetoric at Fox Sports and Sirius Mad Dog Radio. Now settled in at ESPN full-time, multiple media reports have scored his latest five-year contract at $100 million.