Whoopi Goldberg calls out Stephen A Smith for linking Serena Williams’ Super Bowl dance to her ex Drake

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Whoopi Goldberg has slammed ESPN’s Stephen A Smith for taking aim at Serena Williams's Super Bowl LIX dance.

The 'Sister Act' star took Smith to task on 'The View' after he suggested Williams’ 2025 Super Bowl cameo was somehow a jab at her ex-boyfriend Drake, Page Six reported.

Whoopi Goldberg slams Drake debate over Serena Williams’ Super Bowl cameo

Goldberg, 69, didn’t hold back, slamming Smith’s take as reductive and completely missing the point.

“Why wasn’t it, ‘Damn, Serena was great’? Why is it about some ex-boyfriend she hasn’t thought of?” she asked. “All you can think of is her ex-boyfriend? I don’t understand. Why would you even think it was [about Drake]? Why would you think she’s not smart enough?”

Goldberg wasn’t the only one rolling her eyes at the debate.

Williams, 43, lit up the stage during Kendrick Lamar’s 'Not Like Us' performance at the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show, breaking out into the same Crip walk she famously did after winning gold at the 2012 Olympics.

It was a nod to her roots, a moment of pure joy, and an epic flex, but leave it to Stephen A Smith to rewrite the narrative.

Whoopi Goldberg claps back at Stephen Smith for bringing up 'some old stuff'

The ESPN analyst claimed on 'First Take' that if he were married to Williams, her halftime dance would have been a dealbreaker.

“If I’m married and my wife is going to join trolling her ex, go back to his a**,” Smith said on February 10.

“’Cause, clearly, you don’t belong with me. What you worried about him for and you’re with me? Bye. Bye.”

Goldberg shut that theory down in record time.

“She got a chance to do something she wanted to do, and she went and did it,” she said. “And instead of saying, ‘Damn, that was kind of great,’ you’re bringing it back to some old stuff.”

To be clear, Williams has been happily married to Alexis Ohanian since 2017. So why, Goldberg wondered, are people still making everything about some guy she dated years ago?

“Stop trying to make it about somebody’s man. It ain’t always about somebody’s man. It’s about the person. Forget all that other stuff. We do,” she said.

'The View' co-hosts clap back at Stephen Smith

Goldberg’s 'The View' co-hosts weren’t buying Smith’s argument either.

Sara Haines pointed out that Ohanian himself was completely unfazed, even praising the halftime show.

“I think it says more about the security of the man in the marriage than it would about that because even her husband was like, ‘Pretty fantastic halftime show.’ Like, it was awesome,” she said.

Meanwhile, Sunny Hostin reminded everyone that Williams’ Crip walk was not about any man but rather her own history.

“She took a lot of criticism for doing that,” Hostin said, referencing the backlash Williams received in 2012.

“What she was doing was being her authentic self, an homage to her roots from Compton, and it was Black joy and Black excellence. You’ve got the greatest female athlete of all time coming out and enjoying herself.”

Even Alyssa Farah Griffin suggested that if Williams had wanted to send a message to Drake, it would have been completely fair.

“He’s taken digs at her husband,” Griffin said. “I don’t even know that it counts as petty when he’s been deeply petty to you and you’re just clapping back.”

And just in case there was any doubt, Williams herself set the record straight, posting on Instagram about why she joined Lamar’s performance.

“When @kendricklamar and team called and was like ‘we’ve been trying to do something forever, what about this? We loved your crip walk at the Olympics after you won the gold medal.’ I’m like Super Bowl? Are you serious? When in the world would I ever be able to dance at a Super Bowl? (Never) let’s do it!” she wrote.

Her final word?

“I knew my winning dance after the @olympics would pay off one day,” she said, adding, “End of story.”