You don’t have to hand it to Skip Bayless, but we might just have to. Only the ousted now-former host of Undisputed could spin replying to an assertion that someone threatened to punch him in the face back to sports while also relaying — and still believing — that he was on the right side of the Tim Tebow debate.
This all comes after Cris Carter recently revealed on his podcast that he once threatened to punch Bayless in the face while the two were still at ESPN.
“This is when the Tebow phenomenon was going on, and he was a huge Tim Tebow guy… So I come on there on a Monday, and we’re trading barbs and everything,” Carter explained. “We go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And then I just level said it and was like, ‘Listen, if throwing the football is important in the NFL, Tim Tebow will never be a starting quarterback.’ So, he got defensive and then he came back and said, ‘Well, that’s why you didn’t win a Super Bowl,’ which got nothing to do with nothing.”
As soon as the show went to commercial, Carter removed his earpiece and confronted Bayless directly.
“I told him, ‘I’ll never be on your show again, and if you ever say anything like that to me again, I’ll punch you right in the f*cking face,” Carter bluntly said.
According to Bayless, that never happened — or at least he doesn’t remember it happening in the same manner. The New York Post‘s Ryan Glasspiegel reached Bayless for a comment, and he responded in the most Skip Bayless way possible. Not only did he refute Carter’s telling of events, but he also found a way to make it about Tebow — and how he was right all along about the former Denver Broncos quarterback.
“Cris and I sparred often on First Take during the Tebow run in 2011 but I have zero memory of him telling me he was going to punch me in the face,” Bayless said.
“I do remember him giving me advice during a commercial break at midseason: ‘Trust me, you chose the wrong horse.’ I just shrugged and said: ‘We’ll see.; All Tebow did was lift a 1-4 team to a division championship and a playoff win over Ben Roethlisberger’s Steelers, with his arm and his legs and his physicality and his playmaking will.”
While Carter implied that there’s no love lost between the two, Bayless seems to feel differently.
“Right away at FS1 in 2016, I got along great with Cris and loved having him on the show several times a week during that first NFL season,” Bayless’ statement continued.
“We flew a private jet home from the Super Bowl, and mid-flight he sat down by me and asked if he could be on Undisputed full-time. I liked the idea and bounced it off Jamie Horowitz, the head of the network, who said no, they needed Cris on First Things First.”
Carter’s recent revelation about threatening Bayless has once again brought the spotlight to the latter’s unwavering support of Tebow.
Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary and widespread criticism labeling his coverage as a “shtick,” Bayless continues to defend his stance on the former quarterback. Rather than acknowledging the potential harm caused by his relentless Tebow advocacy or addressing Carter’s serious accusation, Bayless has chosen to deflect and double down, which isn’t anything new for him — especially when it comes to Tebow.
But we shouldn’t be surprised. As recently as 2021, when Tebow was in Jaguars camp as a tight end, Bayless was still frequently tweeting about his muse.
I see Tebow is getting ridiculed for … a block??? The 3rd-string DE he was supposed to take out with a wham block crashed down, completing misplaying a run to his left. He was so out of position that Tebow needed only to chip him. The runner broke free. TEBOW DID HIS JOB.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) August 15, 2021
Skip Bayless is Skip Bayless.
Some things never change.
