Fox Sports Makes A Move On Skip Bayless Amid ESPN Reunion Rumors

Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith had quite the run together on ESPN’s “First Take”. The two loudmouth hot-take experts would go back and forth for hours on end. The two got famous during the process, and their price tags went up. While Stephen A remains the top personality at ESPN, Bayless took his talents to FS1.

Skip Bayless currently does a daily show “Undisputed” with Shannon Sharpe. With Bayless’ contract expiring, ESPN had thoughts to re-unite Skip with Stephen A. Unfortunately, FS1 locked up Skip Bayless on a massive new deal.

NEWS: ESPN made a huge offer to reunite Skip Bayless with Stephen A, but Fox Sports retained Bayless with a four-year, $32M contract, The Post has learned.https://t.co/hBkUoxL0Pp

— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) March 4, 2021

Via NY Post:

ESPN made a full-court press to reunite Skip Bayless with Stephen A. Smith, The Post has learned.

The duo would have done a daily ESPN+ show together, while being splashed over ESPN, including weekly spots on “Monday Night Football’s” halftime show.

Smith, who makes close to $8 million per year, was a driving force in ESPN’s recruitment of Bayless. The long negotiations went over several months and did not conclude until late fall.

In August, ESPN offered the 69-year-old Bayless a four-year deal in the $30 million range. There is disagreement among sources of ESPN’s best offer, as sources had it as high as $31 million and as low as $26.5 million. The desire, though, was unquestioned.

According to the article, Skip Bayless signed a four-year, $32 million contract with Fox. Maybe it’s for the best, I don’t know if we could have handled Skip Bayless being back together with Stephen A. Smith.

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