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Shannon Sharpe Shares What Internet Trolls get Right About Skip Bayless, and Skip Agrees
Tim Crean started writing about sports in 2016 and joined Sports7 in 2021. He excels with his versatile coverage of the NFL and soccer landscape, as well as his expertise breaking down sports media, which stems from his many years downloading podcasts before they were even cool and countless hours spent listening to Mike & The Mad Dog and The Dan Patrick Show, among other programs. As a longtime self-professed sports junkie who even played DII lacrosse at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, Tim loves reading about all the latest sports news every day and considers it a dream to write about sports professionally. He's a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan from Western New York who mistakenly thought, back in the early '90s, that his team would be in the Super Bowl every year. He started following European soccer — with a Manchester City focus — in the early 2000s after spending far too much time playing FIFA. When he's not enjoying a round of golf or coaching youth soccer and flag football, Tim likes reading the work of Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chuck Klosterman, and Tom Wolfe.
Get to know Tim Crean betterUpdated19 Aug 2021
Professional troll Skip Bayless might be the most polarizing figure in all of sports media. The long-time sports debate show host takes on the trending topics and delivers some of the hottest takes around on a daily basis. These opinions often draw the ire of at least 50% (if not more) of the internet, and the pundit is often the target of online rage.
While a lot of the hate is misguided (and often flat-out wrong), there are some things that internet trolls get right about Bayless, at least according to his current co-host Shannon Sharpe. And actually, Skip agrees.
Skip Bayless has long been a professional sports agitator
Bayless started his career as a newspaper columnist for some of the most prominent daily publications in the country. He's worked for Dallas Morning News, Dallas Times Herald, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, and really made his name with the Chicago Tribune, per FOX Sports.
He started on TV making guest appearances on Jim Rome's show The Last Word and The Best Damn Sports Show Period on FOX Sports outlets. When he moved full-time to ESPN, Bayless' star truly took off. He started on the short-lived morning show Cold Pizza before striking gold debating Stephen A. Smith on First Take.
In 2016, Bayless jumped back to FOX and teamed with three-time Super Bowl champ Shannon Sharpe to create the First Take doppelganger, Skip And Shannon: Undisputed on FS1.
Shannon Sharpe shared what internet trolls get right about his TV partner
Bayless and Sharpe appeared together on a YouTube-based gameshow called Hot Ones: Truth or Dab. The premise is that they have to answer a series of tough questions truthfully or eat an uber-spicy chicken wing.
Host Sean Evans asked Sharpe to provide some dirt on his co-host, inquiring, “What's one thing internet trolls get right about Skip?”
Sharpe thought for a second and jokingly answered, “everything,” before more truthfully answering:
That he hates LeBron. He sincerely believes that LeBron is – he thinks LeBron is great, don't get me wrong. He thinks LeBron is great, but he thinks Kobe, he thinks Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, are just greater. And he's just terribly, terribly, sadly mistaken.
Shannon Sharpe on Skip Bayless
Bayless absolutely agreed with Sharpe's assessment. He even doubled down, saying, “you mentioned three humans who are all mentally tougher in the clutch than LeBron James is.”
So, the next time you take to the internet to call out Bayless for his LeBron James hatred, you'll be right.
Bayless also identified the worst fans in sports and admitted he's one of them
At another point during the interview, Evans asked Bayless another question where he has to throw himself under the bus a bit as well.
“Which team has the most insufferable fan base in all of professional sports, Evans asked. “And what do you think it is about that city or group of people that makes them the worst?”
Sharpe wheeled around to face Bayless and told him, “I know what the correct answer is.”
Bayless knew precisely what his co-host was talking about and relented:
Ok, I'll call 'em out, and I'm one of them. So, at least I'm not being a hypocrite here. It's the Dallas Cowboys. It's America's Team. I was basically born and raised a Cowboys fan, and I will admit it. I am insufferable when it comes to the Dallas Cowboys.
Skip Bayless on Dallas Cowboy fans
He went on to explain his history as a Dallas fan and that, yes, Cowboys fans “overreact one way or another every Monday.”
Bayless might be insufferable, he might be LeBron hater, and he might even be worse at times than the internet trolls themselves. He can definitely admit when he's part of the problem, though, and that's why so many people tune in.
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