Stephen A. Smith is now ESPN’s biggest star but he might not even be with the network today if not for Skip Bayless. During an appearance on All The Smoke, Bayless revealed he had urged ESPN to rehire Smith after the network had parted ways with him.
“Stephen A. got pushed out the back door in Bristol,” Bayless said. “They did not renew him and I don’t know, you’d have to ask him the real backstory, but he came out here to Fox Sports Radio and he was here for, two years? You can ask my wife about this, he would call me every day and say, ‘Can you get me back on the Worldwide Leader?’
“And I would beat on every door in that building,” Bayless continued. “You can ask them all if I didn’t just keep saying, ‘What are we doing? This is ridiculous. He’s gifted, he’s a force, we gotta get him back here.’ And finally, I think it took two years.
“They imposed their will on him because he was too full of himself – I guess – and made him sort of ‘crawl back’ if you will and they let him ease back in on New York radio and writing for New York ESPN dot com,” Bayless stated. “I was just ashamed of it. But I kept fighting because then I was going solo on First Take with a rotation of guest debaters.”
(starts at 1:36 mark):
Skip bayless subliminally reminding Stephen A Smith when you got fired on ESPN you called me to get you back via all the smoke pic.twitter.com/V9gBkj1veb
— joebuddenclips/fanpage (@chatnigga101) November 17, 2024
Smith and ESPN had parted ways in 2009 after his contract wasn’t renewed. While he wasn’t technically fired, he has stated that it was what basically happened. He then worked for Fox Sports Radio but returned to ESPN in 2011.
Smith was eventually allowed to be a guest on First Take, but he would only be there once a week. Bayless, however, wanted him to be his full-time partner and in 2012, his wish was fulfilled. The two then had a tremendous run, which ended when Bayless left for Fox in 2016.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that Smith owes a lot to Bayless and the man himself has admitted it. During an appearance on the Club Shay Shay podcast, Smith spoke on his former colleague’s impact on his career.
“The reality is that I wouldn’t be where I am today if he didn’t give me that opportunity on ‘First Take,'” Smith said. “And so for me to be where I am and to know that it springboards off of something that he was directly involved in making happen, for me to insult him in any way is disrespectful. It’s wrong, and it’s something that I would never do… He will always be a brother from another mother to me.”
Host Shannon Sharpe also worked with Bayless, of course, on FS1’s Undisputed. The two didn’t part ways on good terms, but Sharpe also acknowledged in the past on Fox Sports Radio, that no one deserves more credit for his success than Bayless.
“The guy that gets the most credit for my success has to be Skip Bayless,” Sharpe said. “Because prior to me there was no athlete that did what I did full-time… Everybody that did it had a journalism background and Skip says, ‘Well, I want him.’ And it’s like, ‘Yes Skip, he knows football, but can he talk basketball? Can he talk baseball? Can he talk golf? If there’s anything else going on, can he talk that?’
“Skip says, ‘Yes, I believe he can.’ Skip dug in and says, ‘I wanna do a show, and if you want me to do the show, I want him,'” Sharpe stated.
It is undeniable that Bayless played a big role in Smith and Sharpe being two of the biggest names in sports media today. He saw something in them that not many others did and the man sure has an eye for talent.
Thank you for being a valued reader of Fadeaway World. If you liked this article, please consider following us on Google News. We really appreciate your support.
