Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless are supposed to argue on their Fox Sports 1 program, “Undisputed.” It’s the main purpose of the show, and it’s why they’re always drawing strong television ratings.
Apparently, what we see on television is not just for entertainment purposes. According to the Pro Football Hall of Famer, there has real-life tension with his “Undisputed” co-host.
During an appearance on “The Adam Schein Podcast” (h/t Jenna Lemoncelli of the New York Post), the three-time Super Bowl champion tight end admitted that there was recently a rough two-month patch in his relationship with Bayless:
“We had a bad two months. I wasn’t gonna allow two bad months to ruin six years of a great working relationship…
I think it helps our relationship on-air that we are not that close. He doesn’t know what I’m thinking and he doesn’t know what I’m going to say. I don’t know what he’s thinking and I don’t know what he’s gonna say. So, I think it helps us television-wise. It might have hurt our personal relationship, but I definitely think it’s helped our on-air relationship.
So, for me, we had a bad two months. We got in the room and worked it out. We realized that we were better together than apart and we just made sure that, look, we’re going to color between the lines.”
Sharpe and Bayless disagree on a plethora of topics and debates. This includes drastic differences in takes on Tom Brady and LeBron James.
During Brady’s playing days, Sharpe was never afraid to critique the seven-time Super Bowl champion, while Bayless has always been one of Brady’s biggest defenders in the sports media world.
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral NFL stories via Google! Follow Us
Sharpe is a passionate Los Angeles Lakers fan who regularly tweets during games, whereas Bayless is a renowned LeBron critic. Their different sports opinions, for better or worse, bring in massive ratings for FS1.
Bayless previously worked on ESPN’s “First Take” with Stephen A. Smith. Those two, as we see with Sharpe and Bayless, also drew ratings with their passionate rants and disagreements on sporting subjects.
Bayless left ESPN in 2016 and signed a contract with Fox Sports. Sharpe worked at CBS Sports in his post-playing career. He too joined FOX in 2016 soon after it was announced that Bayless was joining the network.
Sharpe was named to eight Pro Bowls in his Hall of Fame career. He won back-to-back Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos in 1997 and ’98 and another with the Baltimore Ravens in the 2000 season.
