Skip Bayless recalls how Stephen A. Smith checked social media to judge ‘First Take’ debates

Skip Bayless once famously stated how he believed that Stephen A. Smith has the “greatest gift of gab” in the history of television. But according to Bayless, his longtime former colleague does take social media criticism to heart from time to time.

On Wednesday, Bayless made an appearance on The Sage Steele Show to discuss various aspects of his career in sports media ranging from his time as a columnist to his time on television at both ESPN and FS1. Naturally, two of Bayless’ most prominent co-stars along the way, Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe, were a big topic of conversation. 

Speaking of his time on ESPN’s First Take alongside Smith, Bayless revealed how the early days of the show were in large part formed by the early days of X, then known as Twitter.

Bayless actually used the social media platform as inspiration for his talking points on the show. He also Bayless revealed how Smith in particular used to regularly check social media during commercial breaks to judge how he did in particular debates against Bayless, sometimes allowing the negative feedback to affect his mood in the process.

“Sometimes me and Shannon (Sharpe) would get mad at each other,” said Bayless. “Sometimes me and Stephen A. would get mad. And I would say, ‘Boy, you woke up on the wrong side of bed today.’ But his problem was, in the early days of Twitter… I don’t know if he still does it. But he would read his phone in the breaks. He would read the responses. And if he read one response that said, ‘You just got your ass kicked on live national TV.’ We would come out of break and he would just be in the surly, foul mood.

“I would say, ‘What are you doing? It’s not that big of a deal. Let it go, it’s okay.’ I wouldn’t say that on the air, because it would be clear somebody pushed his buttons.’ It’s always just one guy on Twitter. I know, I was a victim. In the first year of Twitter, I would read my mentions. In 2009, we had a First Take meeting, which we were all instructed to do this. You have to read your responses. I would get on Twitter and read the overnight responses just to see what was hot. Because they would lean on me to sort of program the debates and pick the hottest topics. It was revealing to me.”

It’s particularly interesting to hear this revelation, considering Smith has consistently ripped Kevin Durant for being “sensitive.” While Smith didn’t appear to be as active in calling out his haters, this statement from Bayless at least makes it clear that Smith, too, is well aware of what is being said about him on social media.

Perhaps Smith has dialed back his time managing his public perception on social media since he and Bayless worked together. But either way, this goes to show that anyone can be sucked into the negativity that comes along with social media from time to time.