Stephen A. Smith Boldly Defends Steroid Abusers in Heated HOF Debate with Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo

Stephen A. Smith and Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo on the same show should come with a disclaimer to turn the volume down on your television.

Wednesday morning, the boisterous sports talkers came together on ESPN’s First Take to debate whether Barry Bonds and other alleged steroid abusers are worthy of Hall-of-Fame honors.

Russo, a diehard San Francisco Giants fan, believes the self-righteous sportswriters are just in their decision to keep Bonds out of Cooperstown. Smith, however, argues Bonds and Roger Clemens deserve to be in the Hall-of-Fame because you can’t tell the story of baseball without them.

Proving Smith’s point to be correct, the National Baseball Hall-of-Fame is willing to display memorabilia from Bonds, even though they won’t honor him with a Hall-of-Fame plaque.

“You can put him in the Hall-of-Fame with an asterisk,” Smith said of Bonds, as a way of appeasing the critics who don’t want to honor a player who used performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs).

Russo scoffed at the idea, “you want to put an asterisk next to him in the Hall-of-Fame?” the iconic sports radio host asked with disgust.

“SO WHAT?” Smith yelled. “You tell his story! Put him there but tell his story!”

“[Roger] Maris had his hair falling out,” Russo yelled of the former home run king. “Did the record legitimately. And then [Mark] McGwire, Bonds and [Sammy] Sosa cheat to break the record of a guy whose hair is falling out and I’m supposed to put them in the Hall of Fame?”

“Fair is a place where they judge pigs,” Smith argued. “It doesn’t exist.”

The one thing Smith and Russo seemingly did agree on, was that this debate could only be had by yelling. Hopefully it leads to more appearances on First Take for Russo, not that the ESPN show lacks enthusiasm without him.

Watch above via ESPN