ESPN Rejects Skip Bayless After Fox Sports Breakup: What's Next for Skip? | The Dan Le Batard Show

can we talk for a second since you mentioned Stephen a uh uh Billy I his BMI is low you see the weight loss he had one year to the next crazy he's and he said he put in the work he said it was not OIC that's what he said then he had his trainer come on and confirm exactly what he said no one could question that are you questioning it no I can't no one can uh he is in a contract year and uh we talked briefly because a lot of other things happened last week about uh Bist leaving that chair and I think people Now understand right that that's not like Mutual parting of ways that's uh would appear to be I think uh the end of skip bis's career although I don't know that to be so uh and I was curious Billy because you made the joke you were saying that for one day only him returning to ESPN to do a Shannon and Stephen a show that that would be funny and great and amazing as one last tribute to a guy who really spent 10 years TW 20 years trolling LeBron James like making the discourse around LeBron James be more poisonous than it had to be it was like a career Lane for him uh you think what's going to happen with that chair do you care at all about the mechanics of skip Bess leaving one of the Prime jobs in sports a job that fox got him for so that they could create a network that would counter ESPN um I mean I was disappointed when they said that they weren't even going to entertain the idea of him coming back yeah I didn't want them to kind of ruin it for me had fun yeah just one day a week but what about beyond that do you care at all about what it would mean for if Stephen A leaves or if Fox tried to get Stephen A like is I don't even know what's gonna happen I would do it if I was him if you're asking me what I would do I wouldn't do it if I was him I'd be happy with $17 million uh but I mean just coward can go back and forth now right he can make a choice whether he wants to be what McAfee is at ESPN like when you're talking about the top of the food chain on who it is that gets those big contracts skip bis is now out of the running for any of those correct like that part is over whatever what is the next step for him I ask with genuine curiosity because uh I I I know many people are going to hear this and they're going to think that because I blame him and Stephen A for sort of making Sports Talk debate more corrosive than it needed to be and dehumanize to the athletes that people are going to think that I'm enjoying the end of skip bis's career for me it makes me sad that someone who is dedicated his life every exercise to work's the most important thing uh every meal is is just focused on how does he get the attention for being that it all seems to be over and I would imagine that's going to be very hard for him I haven't heard from him publicly I don't know what the next step looks like but in the big Wars between him and Stephen A he may he he can take credit in his head for I made Stephen A I made Shannon sharp and now the two of them are have just blown me off of the map of what this used to be and I'm curious whether anybody cares in that room about what it is that we're talking about given that these uh these two people have done performative professional wrestling across Sports media for the entire decade I think a lot of people are having uh I think a deserved go skip bis en enjoying this what I would say is probably like that's a hell of a run I've always been curious as to how someone like that ages in the business and while I was busy asking that question skip bis was actually out here Aging in the business looking tremendous for his age but you wonder yeah is this a logical endpoint for someone in their 70s doing this game does he try to do something online well his online presence he hasn't quite figured that game out for his inflammatory and for how much his like uh on air content leans into internet culture he's not really great at leveraging that and making that an economy so I just assumed he would just live on the internet if ESPN which that made me wonder what's going on there for ESPN to so quickly take that out as a possibility I was very curious buddy like they come on but I guess it's a shaning thing too because you remember a couple years ago skip was kind of up and there were still Rumblings of maybe Cen a and and Skip re unting onm plus but when Shannon came into the equation like you you picked a side like there there is a legitimate beef there between Shannon and Skip so now that they've signed up with Shannon sharp and his role is only increasing over time there they had to shoot that skip bis down thing quick which I found interesting Mike just pointed out like Skip's not really good at the internet when I think of skip bis on the internet I think of him just doing the videos where he's like Breathing heavily and then throwing out his Cowboys jersey those are like his two moves walking into the kitchen you see him standing in the hallway and he takes a step back and then he takes a step forward they're awesome maybe he's good at the internet actually I know how you judge like daytime Sports Talk programming is by ratings and the ratings for First Take were really good and Undisputed not but for most people that it's 10 times the ratings it's 500,000 to 50 it's never been when they got in the skip Bist business it was to continue to climb like but that's the power of ESPN right which is concerned disparity has never been this large though like it's what they were paying for for Undisputed but I would say like they were they were trying to buy some credibility in getting skip bis and the numbers for first things first are incredible and they are well position in the internet age when you look at subscribers