Posted in: Fox, Opinion, Sports, TV, TV | Tagged: FS1, opinion, Skip Bayless, Undisputed

Skip Bayless Expected to Depart FS1's "Undisputed" This Summer: Report

Reports are that Skip Bayless will be departing FS1 sports talk show Undisputed later this summer after eight years hosting the show.

If reports from the New York Post's Ryan Glasspiegel are accurate, it looks like it will be two summers in a row that FS1 sports talk show Undisputed has lost a big-name host. Last year, it was Shannon Sharpe – and now, rumblings are that Skip Bayless will end his eight-year run sometime this summer. Glasspiegel's article notes that the show had taken a hit in the ratings after Sharpe left, even with a new format featuring a rotating lineup of co-hosts. Reporting from The Post in 2021 noted that Bayless had signed a four-year/$32 million deal – which would put this summer near the end of that deal. The talk show is expected to continue after Bayless' departure. And now, a look back to December 2023 when we took issue with some Bayless nonsense…

How About More Taylor Swift, Less Skip Bayless In NFL From Now On?

We weren't really surprised that Bayless would drag Taylor Swift's name through the mud just to give FOX Sports' Undisputed even a snowball's chance in Hell of coming close to ESPN's Stephen A. Smith-hosted First Take in the ratings. We're talking about a dude who made his career off of blaming LeBron James for everything short of the Kennedy assassination and Quibi. But for someone who likes to come across as some kind of "sports prophet," Bayless is a little lacking when it comes to having pop culture smarts – leaning on some old, sexist tropes in the process. And it all started because the Kansas City Chiefs got the shit kicked out of them by the Las Vegas Raiders (seriously) back in December 2023 – and because Bayless apparently forgot that Swift's not on the Chiefs roster.

During the game, Bayless posted, "Feels like it's about time to call Taylor Swift a distraction. What do you think, Patrick? Andy? How about you, Travis?" – directing the post to Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, coach Andy Reid, and tight end Travis Kelce (Swift's boyfriend). for those of you who don't know or need a reminder, Swift & Kelce have been dating for a while, with Swift attending a number of Kelce's games – and they even won some of them. But because the team shit the bed over the weekend, Bayless saw the opportunity to throw Swift under the bus – because blaming "TIME's Person of the Year" is a whole lot "sexier" of a topic than droning on for ten minutes about poor game-planning.

But Bayless's theory is DOA for a number of reasons. First off, Mahomes, Reid & Kelce are professionals in their field on the field playing in the NFL. If they're allowing themselves to be distracted to that extent, they don't deserve to be in the NFL. That's not a Swift problem – that's a Mahomes, Reied & Kelce problem. But that assumes that Swift is a distraction – a premise we're not buying into. This is the NFL, folks! I would say that topics like concussion protocols, domestic abuse, drug use, questionable social media postings, rules that seem to change from ref to ref, and more are much worse "distractions" for the league. Having a global phenomenon beloved by millions boosting your merchandise sales as she attends her boyfriend's game doesn't vibe as it would even rank in the "Top 100 NFL Distractions."

And then there's the over-arching sexist aspect of it, with Bayless playing into the old trope of "women being these seducers who like to bring down great men." I was half-expecting Bayless to drop a bad Yoko Ono/The Beatles comparison. Just so there's no confusion? The Kansas City Chiefs had a better chance of winning against the Raiders if Swift suited up for them than the idea that Swift had any "power" to impact their play. And the NFL would be a ton better off with more Taylor Swift in it and a whole lot less Skip Bayless. His "yelling at clouds" has gotten way too distracting… and it seems like he's forgotten that professional sports are about about entertaining first and foremost.

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