Stephen A. Smith had some words for famed attorney Jose Baez during Friday's (September 22) episode of First Take on ESPN. The ever boisterous network analyst dug into Baez - who is currently representing the late Aaron Hernandez's estate - for using the results of a study on Hernandez's brain as the basis of a lawsuit against his former team and the National Football League. Smith's rant was in response Baez and Hernandez's fiancee Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez announcing the suit on the very day news broke of Hernandez has reportedly tested positive for signs of CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy).

“Under no circumstances am I diminishing the impact of CTE, how legitimate of an issue that is. … I’m not disagreeing with any of that,” Smith told co-host Max Kellerman and football great Tedy Bruschi. “What I’m saying is you don’t get to be a lawyer for Aaron Hernandez’s family, show up to try to sue the Patriots, try to sue the NFL and all of a sudden get us all caught up in CTE to the point where we diminish the murder conviction that had you in jail for the rest of your life."

Smith gave a similar take on the lawsuit that player-turned-analyst Shannon Sharpe gave during Fox Sports 1's airing of Undisputed. Both men point to Hernandez's history of unlawful offenses and his violent reputation as factors that pre-date his career with the Patriots, and thus, formulate a more credible premise than CTE, for why he would go on to become a convicted murderer. Smith invoked the names of Junior Seau and Dave Duerson to pose that while they and other players who were known CTE cases went on to kill themselves, there is no consistent evidence to prove that CTE might drive those suffering from the disorder to murder. "Year after year after year, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of football players come through the NFL. I'm sorry, who's committing murder? who are these people?" said Smith.