Skip Bayless leaves ESPN for FOX Sports

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tomas

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Good riddance.I'm tired of hearing Steven A Smith/Bayless playing the race card.They're both unprofessional, narcissistic, race baters.
 

LesBaker

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Now if NFL Network can get rid of that dork Charlie Casserly - and yes ESPN still needs to get rid of Stephan A-hole Smith

Actually I wonder how Stephan A will be without Blowhole Bayless.

Maybe he tones it down a bit, he is a smart guy.
 

Mojo Ram

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Now if NFL Network can get rid of that dork Charlie Casserly - and yes ESPN still needs to get rid of Stephan A-hole Smith
I like Casserly enough but yeah, Stephen A-Hole Smith needs to take his angry, loud-mouth talking head act somewhere else.
 

RamFan503

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No matter. Not many original thoughts out there anyway. Sometimes it's more about the timing and simplicity.
 

RamFan503

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I like Casserly enough but yeah, Stephen A-Hole Smith needs to take his angry, loud-mouth talking head act somewhere else.
Sorry but Casserly's draft coverage was unwatchable.
 

Ramhusker

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While we are talking about annoying ESPN hosts, am I the only one that would like to punch Colin Cowherd in the pumkin just for being him?
 

Elmgrovegnome

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I get the hate for the guy, but it goes a little overboard sometimes.

Can people not tell he's exaggerating and playing a role?

If nothing else, the guy has provided a lot of entertaining clips over the years.


That type of over the top radio was a fad that started with Howard Stern and then guys like Bayless tried to bring it to sports radio. It was never a good fit. Maybe the people in charge finally are realizing this.
 

Elmgrovegnome

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While we are talking about annoying ESPN hosts, am I the only one that would like to punch Colin Cowherd in the pumkin just for being him?

I actually liked Cowherd, but now that he is in LA all that he talks about is basketball.
 

LesBaker

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That type of over the top radio was a fad that started with Howard Stern and then guys like Bayless tried to bring it to sports radio. It was never a good fit. Maybe the people in charge finally are realizing this.

ESPN is catering to the reality TV/hip hop generation because they are losing viewers/listeners.

But while trying to draw viewers/listeners they are driving them away.

The content isn't what it used to be.
 

DenverRam

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First take is awful now without Skip.

Completely awful.

They have 4 woman up there talking about twitter and chocolate. No debating.

Should rename it to VaginaTake
 

Prime Time

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  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #56
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/skip-bayless-joins-fox-sports-916035

Skip Bayless Joins Fox Sports from ESPN: 'I'm Taking Off the Handcuffs"
by Marisa Guthrie

“Too many people in charge at ESPN, for my taste, were a little too fearful,” says the outspoken host, who leaves the Disney-owned network after 12 years for a new show that will launch Sept. 6.

Skip Bayless says his move to Fox Sports 1 – with a new daily program that is set to bow Sept. 6 – will allow him to remove the “handcuffs” he’s been compelled to wear at ESPN, where he hosted the popular ESPN2 program First Take with Stephen A. Smith.

“Too many people in charge at ESPN, for my taste, were a little too fearful,” Bayless tells The Hollywood Reporter in an interview officially revealing his move. "It's a Disney network. There are just certain boundaries that you can’t even tiptoe along. Not that we won’t have boundaries at Fox, because we will. [But] they will trust me to go a little deeper. I can be completely honest on everything."

The long-rumored announcement is expected to be made Monday from Fox Sports National Networks president Jamie Horowitz, who had oversight ofFirst Take while he was a vp at ESPN. And Bayliss' FS1 show will air from 10 a.m. – noon, going head-to-head with First Take. (Max Kellerman debuted July 25 as Smith’s new co-host.)

Bayless, 64, declines to offer specifics about the new show or his co-host (NFL Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe has been rumored), nor will he discuss topics that were verboten at ESPN. And he noted that leaving the network after 12 years was “extremely difficult.” But he often offered a contrarian and controversial take on sports leagues and athletes, delivering pointed criticism of superstars including the NFL's Aaron Rodgers and the NBA's LeBron James, whom he posited was overrated.

Bayless had an infamous — and much-criticized — on-air run-in with the Seattle Seahawks’ Richard Sherman in 2013, but unlike many of his ESPN colleagues (including Smith and former columnist and Grantland creator Bill Simmons), he was never suspended.

“I’m not suggesting I’m going to become some sort of shock jock because that’s not me,” he adds. “I say what I say because I believe it from the bottom of my soul and I can back it up. Now I feel like I can be completely honest heart-and-soul with full support from the people above me."

ESPN tried to keep Bayless; he’ll be getting a raise at Fox Sports 1 with a four-year deal worth close to $6 million annually. But he’ll be on a network with far fewer viewers than he had on ESPN2.

“If you understand me, you know that I live for challenges,” he says. “And what bigger challenge than to go up against the juggernaut that is First Take?”

Bayless compares his entrée at Fox Sports 1 — which will soon mark three years on the air — to his early days on Cold Pizza, the precursor to First Take.

“So many of my friends told me I was nuts to risk joining a show at that point [in 2004] that had yet to even register in the ratings,” he says. Bayless describes Horowitz, who is credited with ushering in the “embrace debate” era at ESPN, as the “smartest man I’ve ever worked with in television.” He added that when Horowtiz blew up Cold Pizza in favor of First Take, a two-hour live debate program, “a whole lot of people at ESPN told Jamie and told me that this would be a disaster and that we would fail miserably. And we did not.”

So a big reason Bayless defected to Fox Sports 1 is to work with Horowitz again. (He’s only the latest ESPN staffer to leave for Fox; Colin Cowherd and Jason Whitlock are also there, along with several executives.) In a statement, Horowitz, who is president of Fox Sports National Networks, characterizes Bayless as “one of the most incisive opinionists in all of media. He’s equal parts fearless and relentless, and his rebellious spirit is a tremendous addition to the lineup of talent and shows that we are building for FS1.”
 

LACHAMP46

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What I don't get, unless his ratings were through the roof, why does Fox continually regurgitate the old espn talent? I mean, give a fresh face a chance? Like, do any of those Carls Jr./Hardee models know anything about sports? and just let skip write...
 

Prime Time

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  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #58
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/12/19/skip-bayless-loves-him-some-skip-bayless/

Skip Bayless loves him some Skip Bayless
Posted by Mike Florio on December 19, 2016

622254376-e1482166477719.jpg
Getty Images

In a development that is both hilarious and entirely unsurprising, notorious hot-take artist and Troy Aikman agitator Skip Bayless has peeled back the curtain to reveal a degree of sensitivity to social media that few actually possess. We think.

As noticed by Ollie Connolly, Bayless posted comments on a Facebook Live stream that contained over-the-top praise of Bayless. He apparently intended to do it under a dummy account. The dummy, of course, was Bayless himself.


View: https://twitter.com/OllieConnolly/status/810684058841845760

Most media types claim to ignore the things said about them on social. Most are lying. But few, presumably, stoop to affirmatively creating false praise of themselves.

The question now becomes whether and to what extent others do the same. It possibly will become a cottage industry for those in the media who cover the media.

For some in the media, the Bayless embarrassment could become the source of inspiration. As long as they’re not dumb enough to forget to switch to the dummy account before signing their own praises to the rest of the world.

Many will think it’s merely humorous. Others will wonder whether the behavior speaks to deeper flaws of character that will make anything Bayless says inherently suspect.

This would assume that anyone actually listens to Bayless. I’m not convinced anyone does.

Except for the dummy who runs his dummy accounts.