Everyone can see that Shannon and Skip utterly despise each other after yet another live blowup. After yet another dust up live on air, it’s pretty obvious that either Shannon Sharpe or Skip Bayless will leave Undisputed soon, ending one of the two major morning debate shows.
Now, I’m not going to talk a lot about this as it’s not really related to sports or entertainment, but I couldn’t help but mention the demise of one of the two biggest morning debate shows on TV.
When you wake up in the morning and want a recap/perspective about the previous night’s games and a preview of tonight’s games, there’s only really two shows you can watch: ESPN’s First Take and Fox Sports’ Undisputed.
Sure, there’re a few morning competitors like Good Morning Football, Boomer and Gio, or your local sports channel, while you could also just skip all of these shows and watch the fantastic Pat McAfee Show at 12PM, but there have only been two main rivals for the 9AM-12PM sports timeslot for nearly a decade now. And that’s First Take and Undisputed.
Both shows are pretty much identical replicas of one another as the two architects of the debate show/sports take show, Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith, are still the two men in charge of the, respective, shows.
Nevertheless, while First Take has been going strong ever since the departure of Max Kellerman with a rotating cast of personalities to guest alongside Stephen A. Smith, such as Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, Ryan Clark, J.J. Redick, Marcus Spears, Damien Woody, Kendrick Perkins, etc., Undisputed has stuck to the mold Bayless and Smith made famous in the early 2010’s with the constant presence of Bayless and NFL Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe.
But if you’re reading this, you already knew the history of these shows. So, I won’t waste your time any longer as I’ll just get to the point: Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe have obvious, unresolved tension between the two of them. And it showed today when Bayless again interrupted and fought back against Sharpe as he was trying to explain why he was absent from the show yesterday and give support to Damar Hamlin and his family.
There’s clearly a lack of respect that Bayless has for Sharpe’s football insight and his achievement of being one of the greatest (if not the greatest) tight end in NFL history as he has not only mocked the tight end on a regular basis, but he has also insulted his stats and accomplishments because he “had to retire at 35” (a direct quote from Bayless’ mouth).
I get that these two have been friends and the playful banter and mockery was a part of their shtick in the beginning, while controversy and drama is great for ratings, but Skip Bayless has been getting out of control with the insults and belittlement of his partner of late. Practically every other day there are half a dozen news articles about another insult Skip has said to Shannon live on air about the former Broncos and Ravens career.
And some of the stuff Bayless has been saying and doing of late is frankly out of line, such as the constant sighing when Shannon speaks, the exaggerated facial gestures, the insults to his credibility because he retired at 35, and an extreme disloyalty for someone that he has been working with for 6 years now.
I mean, Skip actually said that he would stick by Tom Brady, a man he has openly said he’s never even spoken to, over Shannon Sharpe, a man he has worked with for over 6 years, in any debate just because Brady is the most successful football player ever. Does that sound like a reasonable thing to say?
To be honest, I don’t know how Shannon Sharpe has put up with Bayless and his horrific takes day after day for 6 years. I can’t watch Undisputed anymore as it’s always either talking about the Cowboys, LeBron James, the Lakers, Baker Mayfield, Tom Brady, and the occasional topic about meaningful events in the world of sports. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY!
Plus, seeing how Bayless is the one who makes up the scripts and topics every morning, I can safely put all the blame for the stagnation of the show on him.
We’ll have to see if Uncle Shay-Shay Sharpe stays on and keeps Undisturbed alive but seeing how he has an extremely successful podcast of his own, I don’t see any reason he would.
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