The sports media world received a jolt recently when it was announced that famed FS1 sports media commentator Skip Bayless would be leaving Undisputed after seven years at the network. Undisputed's ratings had reportedly been tanking in the wake of Shannon Sharpe's departure from the show a year ago, and now it is unclear what the next steps are for Bayless at the age of 71.
Although he is largely responsible for the sports media landscape as we know it today (whether that's a good or bad thing is certainly up for debate), Bayless made quite a few enemies during his television runs at both FS1 and before that, ESPN. One of those enemies, apparently, was legendary NFL Hall of Famer Cris Carter, who recently broke down a time a spat with Bayless nearly turned physical.
“I was working at ESPN, doing NLF, I would do Mike Greenberg after doing my NFL stuff, and then I would come on there because Stephen A and I were friends, I didn’t know Skip personally, but I'm going to be honest with you, Skip is not one of my favorite people,” said Carter, via Fully Loaded. “So I’m on there doing the show and everything, and then all of a sudden this is when the Tebow phenomenon was going on. He was a huge Tim Tebow guy, this guy was this, this, this.
“So I come on there on a Monday and we’re trading barbs and everything, going back and forth. Then I just said it and was like listen, if throwing a football is important in the NFL, Tim Tebow will never be a starting quarterback in the NFL. He got defensive and then he came back and said, well that’s why you didn’t’ win a Super Bowl. Which has got nothing to do with nothing, we went to commercial break, I took my ear piece off, and I told him, I'll never be on your show again, and if you ever say anything like that to me again, I’ll punch you right in the f—-ing face.”
Carter would go on to contradict these statements by appearing on Bayless' show Undisputed at FS1 later on.
Bayless indeed has been known to either worship or excessively hate on certain players throughout his career, including both Tebow, who fell into the praise camp, or LeBron James, who Bayless does not have in his top eight all time in the sport of basketball.
Shannon Sharpe himself all but confirmed that Bayless' disrespect of his own playing career during a segment discussing Tom Brady in many ways made up his mind to leave the show.
If this is the end for Bayless, he leaves behind a complicated legacy. As previously mentioned, he is largely the architect of the sports talk debate show format, and is directly responsible for the notoriety of people like Stephen A. Smith and has also lent a second career to many former athletes in the media landscape.
On the other, there were times where he clearly crossed the line with his personal insults, and Cris Carter evidently didn't take too kindly to that aspect of his personality.
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