"You can't be soft"- Emmanuel Acho takes aim at Stephen A. Smith amid LeBron James beef

The Stephen A. Smith and LeBron James beef continues to be a major talking point. Emmanuel Acho, a former NFL player and now FOX Sports analyst, weighed in on the conversation and discussed how analysts need to be able to have some thick skin if they are calling out professional athletes.

"If you want to have an opinion, you can't be soft. Pick a struggle. I'm looking at all this LeBron James, Stephen A Smith beef and analysts need to get called out at times, and we need to get checked too, when, with all due respect, half the times analysts that simply sit behind a desk and never play the game, they're not really the athlete's friend."

Emmanuel Acho continued to speak about how if an athlete calls out an analyst, they need to be able to take it on the chin. Below is the full video that he posted to social media.

Emmanuel Acho has one of the more unique positions as he was able to play 20 games in the NFL between 2013-14 with the Philadelphia Eagles before transitioning to a sports analyst. The beef between Smith and James is regarding the analyst's comments regarding Bronny James.

However, through back and forth, we have seen James appear on "The Pat McAfee Show" and say that Stephen A. Smith took things personally and is currently on a Taylor Swift tour with his reactions.

Emmanuel Acho previously called out Stephen A. Smith over comments on LeBron James' son

The beef between Stephen A. Smith and LeBron James has been going on for a while, and this is not the first time that Emmanuel Acho has discussed this topic. Back on March 7, Acho posted a tweet where he supported James outright for his response.

"I know y'all saw LeBron James run up on Stephen A. I'm not going to lie to y'all, I love it, and we gotta talk about it. I love it because we need to be held responsible for what we say about people, myself included. Oftentimes, we talk real loose with our lips, and we talk real reckless."

This entire discussion began with Smith questioning if Bronny James has earned a spot in the NBA and publicly pleaded with LeBron James "as a father". James kept that same energy in person, which led to their confrontation during a Lakers game.

Almost three weeks later, it remains a hotly debated topic owing to LeBron's unabashed responses to Smith on Pat McAfee's show and then on his personal Instagram after a buzzer-beating winner against the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night.