During a debate regarding then-Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady in December 2022, things grew heated between Undisputed co-hosts Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe on FS1. Sharpe had stated that Brady was not playing well and proceeded to call out Bayless for never criticizing the quarterback. In response to his statement, Bayless issued a personal criticism towards Sharpe by stating that Brady was a better NFL player than him and that he was jealous. As Sharpe tried to state that they were teammates and took off his glasses, Bayless told him to put them back on. The exchange quickly went viral on the internet and caused Sharpe’s phone to be inundated with messages from friends and family.
Reflecting back on the occurrence during a recent appearance on the Funky Friday podcast hosted by former NFL quarterback Cam Newton, Sharpe spoke about what happened with Bayless as the current iteration of the show was in its homestretch. In June of that year, Sharpe left Undisputed and FS1 after seven years, proceeding to sign with ESPN to make twice-weekly appearances on First Take and inking a partnership between his Shay Shay Media company and The Volume. While he appreciates Bayless for taking a chance on him as a former athlete even when FS1 wanted to hire a journalist to sit opposite him on the show, he believes a combination of things ultimately led to his departure.
“Maybe there’s some things I could have done differently,” Sharpe said. “Maybe I should have just had a conversation with Skip before it even got to that point, maybe said something differently, but I don’t know. It’s really hard to say.”
Sharpe discussed the nature of relationships and how they can begin to phase out after a prolonged stretch of time. Thinking about the sequence of what happened, he pondered over whether he had crossed the bridge on which he was supposed to travel for seven years and then recognized that it was about to collapse. Newton followed up by asking if it was the on-air argument during their debate about Brady that ultimately caused an escalation.
“See, if somebody else had to say what Skip said, I wouldn’t have batted an eye, but we’re supposed to be teammates, and I think that’s what hurt me more than anything,” Sharpe said. “My teammate, that’s what he thought of me.”
An aspect of the disappointment surrounding what Bayless said was in Sharpe always defending him in situations on the show. He explained that whenever people would come on the show and take shots at Bayless, he would remind them that it was not their show and that they would not be doing that. In retrospect, Sharpe believes that management could have handled the situation better as well.
“The only thing that I get upset about [is when] I hear people say, ‘Skip made you,’” Sharpe delineated. “Now had I not made it, what would you all have said? They wouldn’t have said Skip was the reason that I failed, so in other words when I’m successful, you give him all the credit and give me none of it, so if I’d have failed, you would have gave me all the blame and gave him none of it.”
Sharpe explained that one of the first things he hears when he meets with advertisers, sponsors or potential collaborators is that they are proud of how he handled the situation. As a former professional athlete, he knows how to compartmentalize and reminded himself after it happened that there was still an hour and 45 minutes of Undisputed to go. Sharpe remembers thinking to himself that he needed to act professional and that he would address things after the show.
“If somebody would have told me that he would have done that to me, I wouldn’t have believed it, but I appreciate it,” Sharpe said. “I think one day we’ll sit down and we’ll have a conversation. That hasn’t happened yet, but he and I will sit down and have a conversation because we did have seven great years, and what I will not allow is that the seven great years we had to be ruined by one moment, and that happens even in relationships.”
