Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless worked together on First Take at ESPN for parts of five years, proving to be a formidable television presence that made a seminal impact on the sports media business. For the first time in nearly a decade, the two reunited on the latest edition of The Skip Bayless Show where they reminisced on their time pairing on the morning debate television show and utilizing their backgrounds in journalism. Bayless introduced Smith by elucidating that no one in his career has meant as much to him and congratulated him on his new five-year contract with ESPN.
Smith explained that the deal was very humbling and forced him to reflect on his beginnings, elaborating that it all began with Bayless and former ESPN executive Jamie Horowitz for pushing him to be on First Take. Furthermore, he remembered how he was initially limited to one appearance per week as a contributor and that there were battles just to get him on the air, crediting the aforementioned colleagues for providing him the platform.
“I’m forever grateful and I’m forever humbled because it’s a lot of luck that comes with something like that to have people see your talent, to care, and in your case, to trust because trust is a really, really, really big thing with you,” Smith explained, “sitting across from somebody five days a week knowing the kind of issues that you have to tackle, having to know that even without you knowing the words that are going to emanate outside of somebody else’s mouth because there used to be like a roundtable, a potpourri of people that you used to debate against and what have you.”
Smith explained that there were instances where he knew that he could miss morning meetings if necessary because Bayless was aware what would resonate on the show. An aspect of the synergy the duo had on the air despite their oftentimes opposing viewpoints on sports situations derived from the inherent trust they built and fostered.
“You wanted me because of trust, and the fact that you knew that it was going to be somebody that would bring the same energy, the same fervor, but most importantly, you knew that they weren’t going to try to undermine you while doing so,” Smith said. “That was a very important thing – you always emphasized that to me – and I’ve taken that with me for the rest of my career, so I thank you my brother. I truly do.”
Bayless was grateful for those words and affirmed that Smith has the greatest gift of gab he has ever encountered on television. Moreover, he appreciated the trust Smith placed in him and how he believed that he knew the location of boundary lines, articulating that it is rare to find in the business. On top of that, he remembered when Smith signed a multiyear extension with ESPN in 2014 and how he called Bayless afterwards while on the way back to New York City.
“I was just so happy for you because you had worked so hard to get that deal,” Bayless said, “and now you’ve worked even harder and you’ve taken it up and up and up and you’ve done nothing but great things for the state of this industry that we’re in, and I appreciate you for that.”
Smith added that Dan Le Batard has blamed both of them for the state of sports television and claimed that they ruined the business. When Bayless asked Smith what he thought of that point, he replied by questioning why Le Batard ostensibly absolved himself from being part of the equation as well. Smith added that it bothered him when he said that because they always meant what they said rather than fabricating opinions.
In fact, he reflected on an appearance within the SportsCenter debate segment ‘Old School/Nu Skool’ when Bayless came on national television and suggested athletes have an 11 p.m. curfew. After the discussion concluded, Smith commended Bayless for doing great television but realized thereafter that his colleague was being entirely serious.
“I tell everybody that story because I say, ‘That’s when I knew that’s Skip Bayless. He’s not playing – he means this stuff. He ain’t laughing, he’s not joking, he really, really means this stuff,’” Smith explained, “and I said, ‘That’s when I knew that if we were ever on television together, we would win’ because I knew we thought nothing alike, and in the years to follow as I’ve had different partners and different responsibilities and all of that other stuff, I’ve always told people, ‘Working with Skip Bayless every day, understand that took a load off me.’”
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