‘I Was Stunned’ – Skip Bayless Opens Up About What Went Wrong With Shannon Sharpe & His Biggest Regret About Tom Brady’s Huge ‘Blowout’

Skip Bayless opened up about his time with Shannon Sharpe.

The brash duo first co-hosted Undisputed on FS1 in 2016, enjoying several years of success before a fairly acrimonious falling out in 2023.

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Sharpe then joined rival ESPN as a lead analyst on First Take alongside Stephen A. Smith, while Bayless remained at Fox for an additional year before announcing his own departure.

Skip, the longtime face of the FS1 debate, recently appeared on the All The Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson to discuss his side of events.

The outspoken sports columnist and commentator revealed his only regret about the situation: the couple didn’t follow through and leave Fox together.

“We weren’t as close as Stephen A. (Smith) and I. But I just wanted us to finish together on time,” Bayless revealed.

“I saw his podcast starting to take off when he was at Fox. I wanted us to end up together.

“I’m not exactly sure what happened upstairs, but everything collapsed and he was kicked out. And I was blindsided and stunned by it, and I don’t like it still Today.

“It was a moment where it was just wrong. That’s not how I envisioned (the end). Because our contracts were competing, I knew that when mine ended, I wanted to separate and that we finish as we should have finished (leaving together).”

Sharpe spent seven years debating a number of burning issues while sitting across from Bayless.

However, their relationship became tumultuous towards the end, leading to the former Broncos tight end entering into a buyout deal with Fox Sports that saw him leave the network.

Many believe the beginning of the end of Skip and Shannon’s relationship was a heated debate over Tom Brady.

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Brady was coming off one of his career-worst performances against the 49ers in 2022, but Bayless was determined to remind Sharpe that the quarterback was even better at 45 than Sharpe was as a tight end 35 years old.

Sharpe, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, took offense and perceived it to be a personal shot against him.

“You make it sound like I was a bum! I’m in the Hall of Fame! I won three Super Bowls!” » he shouted.

“(Brady) is way better than you. Way better,” Bayless argued.

Bayless told Barnes and Jackson that this was as close as he and Sharpe got to a “blowout.”

“We had a few meetings to work things out,” he revealed, referring to their infamous argument with Brady.

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“After a while, I started asking if it was personal between him and Tom Brady. He just hated Tom Brady. And it got vitriolic, where it started to get mean and angry on the air.

“I think there was some resentment like, ‘How can he be so great?’ Because he (Brady) is not athletic and he can’t run.

“It’s as close as we’ve ever gotten to an eruption, an explosion.”

Skip then praised Shannon, saying he was extremely competitive and they did it authentically.

He added that it never seemed personal, despite the intensity of their debates.

“As soon as the red light went off, I let go of him. And I never took him home. And he knew I always had his back,” Bayless added.

“Shannon and I produced some real heat, and I love her for it. Those are magical moments for me when I look back on them.”

Sharpe also opened up about her time with Bayless in the year since their split.

He spoke with Stephen A. Smith about why he left Undisputed, referencing that infamous Brady segment, saying Bayless “had no respect” for him.

“A lot of it is my fault. Because there were times leading up to that where it felt like shots were being fired and I let it go. And I should have say something at that time, but I didn’t.

“And I was bringing it to people’s attention, and they were brushing it under the rug. So it was my fault that it got to that point and he felt like he could go too far in that situation. I think that in any relationship where there is the host, the co-host… as soon as one partner no longer has respect for the other, the other partner then in turn loses respect for said partner. , I think it’s just a matter of time because at that point I felt like he had lost all respect for me.

“…I knew at that point it was just a matter of time. They were going to have to separate this. I knew that. I was ready to honor the contract, but I knew it was going to be finish because it had started to happen with more and more regularity, the lack of respect.

“You can say I’m loud, you can say I’m obnoxious, you can say I’m arrogant. But to try to poop on my career, a seventh-rounder who started on special teams and has so well done that I got into the Hall of Fame. Trying to downplay that was discouraging to me…I considered Skip a friend, that kind of personal shot at me really hurt, Stephen A. It really is.”

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In a more recent interview, Sharpe choked up and revealed that his commitment to the Undisputed position cost him his personal life.

But Sharpe ultimately had the last laugh.

He was able to keep his podcasts, Club Shay Shay and Nightcap, after the Fox Sports takeover, both of which grew in popularity.

Club Shay Shay is now part of Colin Cowherd’s The Volume, under which Nightcap, along with Chad Johnson, also sits.

Shannon’s popularity has skyrocketed since the breakup, while Bayless’s has declined.

Undisputed continued to lose attention toward the end of Skip’s tenure, and in August he announced his decision to leave FS1 to “pursue other opportunities.”