Stephen A. Smith opens up on the death of his mother Janet in 2017 and says 'for two tears, every single day I wished I was dead' in tearful address to camera - as he considers how his critical sports coverage impacts struggling athletes

Stephen A. Smith has opened up on his mental health struggles when his mother in June 2017 in a tearful address to camera on his YouTube show.

Smith's admission came as part of wider segment on his self-titled show and how he considers the impact his NFL coverage has on stars such as Dak Prescott, the Dallas Cowboys quarterback.

The ESPN First Take host has often relished the Cowboys struggling and has criticized Prescott's performances this season.

But he revealed a friend reached out to him before going on air recently and drew attention to Prescott's mental health struggles in 2020, when his brother committed suicide seven years after the death of their mother.

'I'm a human being first. If I'm being totally honest, I know the feeling,' Smith, 55, said before discussing the death of his own mother six years ago.

Stephen A. Smith made a tearful admission about how his mother's death impacted him

Janet Smith died six years ago, on June 1, 2017, after a battle with cancer - Smith described her as 'the greatest human being I've ever known'

'Anybody who know me knows in June, June 1 to be exact, knows what that day is. That was the day I lost the greatest woman I've ever known. I lost the greatest human being I've ever known. That was Janet Smith, my mother. 

'When I went back and read what Dak Prescott said and the difficulties his brother had, ladies and gentleman I can relate. 

'I never thought about killing myself, but for two years every single day at some moment in time I wished I was dead. That is how bad my life was without my mother.

'I've said this privately to many people but one of the worst parts - and my mother battled cancer for a long time and was suffering - but one of the things that really, really raked my soul... but the part about me that couldn't move beyond for so long that I had to go to therapy, but when it hit home for me, it was the fact that I was single.

'You are on your own, since you never made that commitment but knew you had unconditional love from your momma. It hit me when the casket was lowering into the ground. 

'That is when it was over, when I felt it was over. And I wanted to die because she meant that much to me. I knew for the rest of my life I would never, ever have anyone like that again.

'I never want a brother (Prescott) to feel like he's in that kind of abyss. That life is that low. I might make fun of a Cowboys loss but that is me as a fan having fun against Cowboys fans. I wish him no ill.'

Smith is renowned for his animated and at time critical coverage of sports in the US 

Smith paid tribute to the resilience of Dak Prescott - the Dallas Cowboys quarterback 

Prescott, 30, spoke out in 2020 about his own struggles. 

When you have thoughts that you've never had, I think that's more so than anything a chance to realize it and recognize it, to be vulnerable about it,' Prescott said. 

'Talked to my family, talked to the people around me simply as I did at the time. Some of them obviously had dealt with it before, was able to have those conversations and then reach out further just to more people.

'I think being open about it and not holding those feelings in was one of the better things for me.'