Tuesday marked the official end of the partnership that Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe had on Undisputed after seven years on FS1. It was an emotional goodbye for both of them as they claimed they were able to prove critics wrong with the success of their show.
Bayless added more about Sharpe this week on his podcast, The Skip Bayless Show, and he said that Tuesday’s show was a significant moment for Undisputed.
“In a way, Shannon and I were kind of a married couple on TV. I did not watch a single game of any sport in any magnitude for 7 years without thinking about what Shannon was thinking about the outcome of said game and how that outcome would impact tomorrow’s Undisputed.”
Bayless mentioned that in the first meeting that the staff had once Sharpe came into the mix, the Hall-Of-Fame tight end had one goal in mind.
“In our first staff meeting pre-launch, Shannon told the group he wanted to become the first ex-athlete to prove that he can talk about all sports on TV, not just the one he played. Did Shannon ever prove that!”
Sometimes, the key to successful debates is being able to have a good disagreement on things. For Skip and Shannon, they would usually disagree on two main topics: LeBron James and the Dallas Cowboys.
“The biggest advantage Shannon brought to FS1 and to Undisputed was he truly, genuinely, authentically loves LeBron James. He honestly and completely and wholeheartedly believes LeBron is the GOAT, eclipsing even Michael Jordan. That of course is insane. LeBron is obviously nothing more than the phony GOAT. But, because Shannon so believed that LeBron was the best ever, he and I had TV gold.
“My other advantage with Shannon was that like most people who don’t bleed metallic blue as I do, he absolutely despises all things Dallas Cowboys. Once again, we had an extremely natural disagreement…I have no objectivity and sometimes no sense when it comes to my Dallas Cowboys…I’m going to miss my Cowboys displays with Shannon.”
During the podcast, Bayless said that what he loved most about working with Sharpe every weekday was that Sharpe was never late for any show nor would he take a sick day and that meant a lot to him. Plus, he was able to match Bayless in terms of level of preparation for the show.
“What I loved most about working with Shannon was he dedicated himself to the process of preparing for Undisputed just the way he dedicated himself to playing pro football. Undisputed is a voracious beast because in part I am psycho relentless in my preparation and I do set that tone. It just keeps eating and eating at you day after day. You must watch the games carefully or I will expose and annihilate you because I watch every game very carefully that matters, the games that matter to us. So did Shannon because I’ve long said, most debates are won the night before.”
