The Cowboys Had Noted Hater Stephen A. Smith Help Release Their 2022 Schedule

The NFL schedule release has become its own event, with a television special on the NFL Network and all 32 teams now putting out unique productions on social media to celebrate information we already knew (the teams they’ll be playing) being officially sorted into dates and times (subject to change if networks flex them in and out of spots).

Each team’s internal video and social media units spend a lot of time working on the schedule release so at 8 p.m. ET it can go live to fans, and some try to bring in a big name to make the announcement. Typically, that celebrity is a fan of the team and/or is from that city, but this year the Cowboys (who had Post Malone in last year’s schedule release video) went in the opposite direction.

Dallas brought in their biggest hater, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, to help them release the schedule, and he put on his cowboy hat and turned it up to 11 as only he can to help the ‘Boys announce their 17-game slate.

It’s a pretty great release video, and it’s good on both the Cowboys and Smith to embrace the absurdity of his bit, with it ultimately being a prank on Smith to splice it all together to make it look like he’d turned a corner and was now praising Dallas. It’s surely not the last time we’ll see Smith don his cowboy hat this season, but Dallas fans will hope, like in this video, they’ll get the last laugh by (finally) making another deep postseason run.