Stephen A. Smith didn’t mince phrases when he pointed the finger at Fat Joe for the New York Yankees’ collapse towards the Los Angeles Dodgers within the 2024 World Series, accusing the Bronx rapper of jinxing the crew with a botched Game 3 efficiency at Yankee Stadium.

Appearing on the Joe & Jada podcast on November 25 alongside Jadakiss, Smith dropped the accusation with out hesitation: “I blame you for the Yankees losing to the Dodgers last year.” Fat Joe fired again immediately, saying, “You full of s###. Steve, you full of s###.”

Smith, nonetheless, stood agency.

“I was very mad at you for doing that s###. You know what I said? No, that’s for the Knicks. That’s not for the Yankees. You ain’t identified with the Yankees,” Steven A. Smith mentioned, making it clear he believed Fat Joe had no enterprise moving into the Yankees’ World Series highlight.

The controversy stems from Game 5 of the World Series, the place Fat Joe carried out throughout a key second at Yankee Stadium. What was meant to be a morale increase turned chaotic as a result of technical points.

“They put a delay in my sht. Okay. I practiced three times that day. They put a delay in my ears. So, the sht could be f*cked up,” Joe defined through the podcast. He added, “I rehearsed three times that day. It was no delay. When it came on, it was a delay. Now I got to be real with you. Ice Cube’s ‘great day was a good thing.”

That efficiency shortly turned the centerpiece of a rising superstition now dubbed the “Fat Joe Curse.”

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly added gasoline to the idea in a post-game interview, saying, “They put Fat Joe up on the board, and I was like, ‘Oh, it’s an easy dub now.’ You know Fat Joe is the curse. And you know, they started kicking the ball around.”

Kelly even claimed he predicted the unraveling in actual time: “I’m pretty sure, right before the fifth. I looked over at [Brent] Honeywell and said, ‘The Fat Joe Curse, watch.’ and we started chipping away, chipping away, chipping away. And bad play, bad play, bad play. And I end up getting my second one with the Dodgers.”

The total saga echoes the long-running “Drake curse”, a superstition that’s haunted athletes and groups for greater than a decade. From Serena Williams’ 2015 US Open loss to the Toronto Blue Jays’ latest World Series flop, the Toronto rapper’s presence has been blamed for high-profile sports activities failures.

That fable has adopted Drake to Kentucky basketball, Alabama soccer and even the Golden State Warriors.

Now, Fat Joe finds himself lumped into that very same territory after the Yankees’ championship hopes had been derailed in 2024 and his efficiency was below scrutiny. For a franchise with sky-high expectations, being linked to a rapper’s technical glitch is a brand new stage of sports activities drama.

The blame recreation highlights simply how deep superstition runs in sports activities tradition. Whether it’s Drake’s courtside antics or Fat Joe’s stage mishap, Hip-Hop figures are more and more being forged as scapegoats when issues go south.

Smith’s feedback on the podcast present that even seasoned sports activities analysts purchase into the narrative. When somebody along with his attain begins pointing fingers, it’s now not only a joke—it turns into a part of the story.

Related