Sports Media

Stephen A. Smith: ESPN bosses disliked Skip Bayless’ Tim Tebow obsession

Griffin Crest / Film & TV, NFL / September 1, 2023

Stephen A Smith Skip Bayless — (Tori Lynn Schneider/Tallahassee Democrat / USA TODAY NETWORK)

Stephen A. Smith: ESPN bosses disliked Skip Bayless’ Tim Tebow obsession

It turns out that ESPN might not like Skip Bayless after all. Well, at least his obsession with Tim Tebow. TV personality Stephen A. Smith unveils the truth behind the ESPN bosses on why they hate Skip Bayless’ obsession with the former NFL quarterback.

Stephen A Smith has reached his breaking point with ESPN

On the latest episode of Smith’s FanDuel podcast, he made his take on Bayless’ comments on the Monday episode of “Undisputed.”

“The part that Skip Bayless left out was the fact that the bosses at the time didn’t care,” Smith said. “They had remembered that Skip Bayless lived off of talking about Tim Tebow every day before I arrived.

“The public had accused Skip Bayless of being a caricature of himself. And even though Skip was very proud of his Tim Tebow coverage, the bosses weren’t necessarily enamored with it. Skip Bayless was incredibly proud of his coverage of Tim Tebow; the bosses felt otherwise.”

Bayless has been in the spotlight for his entire career, not for just his on-air personality, but for some of his controversial takes as well. Now, Bayless is in the spotlight once more, but for an obsession over another on-air personality.

Although ESPN’s “First Take” has skyrocketed in views over the course of its time on air with Bayless, ESPN bosses still view Bayless’ obsession over Tebow as strange.

“That’s the part he left out,” Smith said. “I wasn’t the only reason that probationary period per se. It existed because the network wanted to make sure that our show wasn’t one that just generated ratings, but one that didn’t cause them embarrassment and shame.

“Now, I didn’t want to talk about Tebow every day… But to be fair to Skip, it did elevate the popularity of the show to some degree … In the end, the bosses weren’t too happy with it and that’s where the probational period came from too. So I thought Skip left that out so I wanted to make sure I highlighted that.”