ESPN's Stephen A. Smith speaks on FS1 following Skip Bayless' departure and discusses his departure from the Philadelphia Inquirer

Stephen A. Smith is tired of playing nice with FS1.

For the past eight years, the outspoken ESPN star has been neck and neck with his former First attempt Co-host Skip Bayless. Over the years, Smith has avoided publicly criticizing his former colleague, but following Bayless' departure from FS1 earlier this month, ESPN's most well-known personality isn't holding back on what she thinks about the competition between the two networks.

“The biggest misconception that was ever made was that there was competition at 10 o'clock,” Smith told reporters at ESPN's media event on Wednesday. “We've done over 1,600 shows. Twice they were half as far behind our ratings. Twice … So this notion that we suddenly won and finally beat the competition and 'Wow, it was such a long, uphill battle.' That's just not true.”

First attempt reaches an average of around 500,000 viewers per episode, according to the channel's Nielsen data. For comparison: Undisputed According to Sports Media Watch, this year's games often attracted fewer than 50,000 spectators.

In the wake of Bayless' departure, FS1 has changed its morning program. Smith and his First attempt Co-Hosts is now The attachmentwhich features former Green Bay Packers wide receiver James Jones and three former NFL players who spent time in Philly – former Eagles running back (and the team's soon-to-be Hall of Famer) LeSean McCoy, Emmanuel Acho and Chase Daniel.

Smith said his goal was to destroy the new competition.

“Whoever comes up against me, I’m going to take them down,” Smith said.

“They put up a sign in our neighborhood saying they were coming to get us,” added the long-time SportsCenter Host Scott Van Pelt, whose late-night show entered its 10th season this week.

“And never arrived,” said Smith.

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“This is not for me”: Smith talks about his departure from the Inquirer

Before becoming ESPN's best-known star, Smith worked for 16 years as a reporter and columnist for The Inquirer.

He started as a local basketball reporter in 1993, eventually covering the Sixers, and then got his own column, which showcased his natural ability to voice opinions. One column he regrets is a 2001 article in which he harshly criticized popular La Salle coach Speedy Morris when he was forced to resign. He wrote that “a friendly demeanor should not mask incompetence.”

“After that, I put more effort and care into my work because I didn't want to make a habit of having to apologize to people's faces,” Smith told the Inquirer in 2017.

Smith broke a lot of news about the Sixers during his time at the paper, but said he became frustrated during the 2001 NBA playoffs when The Inquirer expanded its coverage of the team and the excitement surrounding Allen Iverson and the team's first NBA Finals appearance since 1983. That's something local news outlets traditionally do during major sporting events — The Inquirer did the same during the Eagles' recent Super Bowl run — but Smith took it the wrong way.

“They put everyone into covering the Sixers and limited me to 800 words a day,” Smith said. “And that's when I said, 'This isn't for me,' because there has to be more.”

“I wanted an outlet that would allow me to speak spontaneously and off the cuff, to express myself at length and do what I do,” Smith added. “And I saw the opportunity in sports talk radio and eventually television.”

Smith ultimately wrote columns for The Inquirer until 2010, but his move from 800 words to eight minutes per segment has clearly paid off—according to Puck's John Ourand, he is set to make $18 million a year under a new contract with the network. But even if Smith is ridiculous and has outlandish opinions on First attemptHe often still sees himself first and foremost as a journalist and only secondarily as an entertainer.

“My journalistic integrity has never been lost and never will be lost,” Smith said.