Skip Bayless writing lead columns for ESPN.com, sadly, is becoming a trend that looks like it's here to stay.
Yay.
For reasons unbeknownst to anyone outside the Bristol bubble, ESPN has once again chosen Skip Bayless to talk about an important sports topic outside of Tim Tebow and LeBron James. This time, it's a column on this year's Heisman race arguing for Manti Te'o over Johnny Manziel. Because Bayless and First Take has followed college football so closely all season long apparently. Even though Pat Forde and Bruce Feldman moved on, there's still a number of talented college football writers at ESPN.com that should get this kind of prime column real estate, but ESPN seems to be giving more opportunities to their debaters instead of the real experts these days.
I'll spare us all from a full-scale takedown because there's only so much Skip Bayless AA can take on before I begin to question my purpose in life. But it was these two paragraphs from Bayless that led me to stare blankly at my laptop screen for several hours trying to comprehend the logic of what I had just read (bolded emphasis added)…
"You will find no bigger media fan of Manziel's than I am. I was skeptical last year, as he redshirted, when newspaper friends in Texas told me longtime high school reporters called Manziel the most amazing prep player they'd ever watched. That's a mouthful, podnah.
Yet after watching Manziel start to finish in five games this season (Florida, LSU, Mississippi State, Alabama and Missouri), I'm ready to say he'll win two of the next three Heismans, at least. But he shouldn't win this year's. Te'o should, and it shouldn't be close. In fact, I'm embarrassed over the sudden media hysteria to elect a two-loss Johnny Football over an undefeated Manti Football."
That's Skip Bayless proclaiming himself as the biggest media fan of Johnny Football while at the same time saying he's embarrassed over the media's love for Johnny Football in the Heisman vote. Sportswriting simply does not get better. This is the age old trick of punditry – if you can be for and against something, you can never be wrong.
Clearly, Bayless is plotting his next move for when Tim Tebow's NFL career comes to an anti-climactic end. It's only a matter of time before he takes on Johnny Football as his next project. (Please Lord, don't let ESPN and the national media do to Johnny Manziel what they did to Tim Tebow.)
And just for good measure, let's make sure Skip Bayless has found some way to make the Heisman race all about him and Tim Tebow in some bizarre way…
"As a Tim Tebow supporter, I love it that Manziel believes in Tebow and even retweeted my #FreeTebow campaign hashtag."
Good, everything appears to be in order then.
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