In the aftermath of Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe’s relationship souring, a lot has been made about many of those in the industry not wanting to work with the former. Obviously, those concerns have been silenced by the likes of Keyshawn Johnson, Richard Sherman and Michael Irvin joining Undisputed. But that chatter did garner some attention.
Someone who would know what it was like to work with Skip Bayless is Jay Crawford, who helped mediate some of the debates with Bayless and Stephen A. Smith on the set of First Take.
In 2012, it was announced that Crawford would co-anchor SportsCenter in the noon slot with Chris McKendry, replacing John Buccigross at the time. Crawford was among those laid off by the Worldwide Leader in 2017, a year that saw more than 100 ESPN employees let go.
Appearing on the latest episode of the Awful Announcing podcast, Crawford touched on the perception of how others felt about being on First Take with at the time Bayless and, of course, Smith.
“Yeah, I don’t think anybody…Now, I remember Jalen Rose had a problem with Skip and then ultimately, Skip with Jalen, over the Pistol Pete, Water Pistol Pete comment,” Crawford recalled. “At this point, I had already decided that my days here have got to be short, or I’m gonna quit the business. Like, I got to find something else within ESPN.”
“So, I was already there and I knew it was just a matter of weeks before I went to SportsCenter. But I do remember the show where just in the context of having a conversation, Skip had mentioned Jalen, ‘What have you won? You and I have won the same number of NBA championships,’ or something along those lines.”
Crawford told host Brandon Contes that he would never like when Bayless would enter that fray.
“And he did do that with a number of guys,” said Crawford. “The other guy that I remember he did that with, that rubbed the wrong way was Cris Carter. Like, don’t tell a Hall of Famer like Cris Carter, ‘You never won anything.’ I mean, there’s certain things you can’t say to an alpha male that has deserved all of our respect.”
“And Cris used to hate it when he would do that, and I know Jalen wasn’t in love with it. This particular day, when he brought it up, Jalen had had enough and he just said, ‘Skip, is it true that you averaged [1.4] points a game your senior year in high school?’
“And Skip was thunderstruck. And I was thunderstruck. I was just like, ‘What’s happening here.’ Skip said, ‘Yeah. Yeah, it is, but there’s a reason for that.’ He started going into this story about how the coach’s son also was the point guard. I mean, hear me on out. Now, we’re discussing in front of a very large audience, Skip Bayless’ senior year of high school. I knew that was only going to end poorly. I knew it.”
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Rose teased Bayless, whose idol was “Pistol” Pete Maravich, that Maravich was “Water Pistol Pete.”
“And you could hear the voices in the studio go, ‘UH OH,'” Crawford said. “You could hear everybody in the studio go quiet and I was in the middle of it. I tried to graciously get us out of it and get us to a commercial break. But when we got there, it was ice in the studio. It was not a good scene.”
Crawford had conversations with Rose and Bayless—separately, of course—following the show, as he attempted to be the peacemaker. He thought he had gotten everyone to a good place when he found out that this thing was going to reach a whole new level.
That’s because the show’s coordinating producer, Jamie Horowitz, who Crawford pointed out was a big supporter of Bayless, said that they would start the following day’s show with an uninterrupted monologue from Skip explaining why he only averaged 1.4 points per game in high school.
Crawford said immediately that there was no way they were going to do this live on air, only to be told that this “was so important to Skip that we didn’t know if he’s gonna do the show today if we don’t do this.”
“I understand that Skip wanted to defend what was now his record,” said Crawford. “I’m sure he never thought he’d be in a position to do that. And here’s Jalen, a guy, who was part of the ‘Fab Five,’ had a nice professional career, and he’s involved with this show now where one of the hosts is gonna explain why he only averaged [1.4] points per game. It just got out of control.”
From there on out, Rose was a persona non grata on the First Take set. He was never allowed to be a guest on First Take, as long as Bayless was concerned.
“The show was taken to heights we had never reached, and Skip was the guy who took us there,” he added. “No question about it. I don’t know if Skip ever gave that edict, it was just what producers on the show were telling me, ‘Jalen’s been on the show for the last time.'”
“Obviously, Jalen’s role at ESPN would only get bigger over time. He ended up being part of the NBA coverage and all that. For a time, he had a very big role at ESPN. But I do know that the relationship between Skip and Jalen was fractured.”
Crawford never had an ill word with Skip during their nine-plus years together. In general, he thought Bayless was well-liked by his co-workers, except for maybe Rose.
“The Skip Bayless you see on TV is completely different than the Skip Bayless you see in real life,” Crawford said of his former colleague. “Quite, kind, thoughtful, considerate, a good guy. A really good guy.”
The full episode of The Awful Announcing Podcast with Jay Crawford will be released Thursday morning. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. For more content, subscribe to AA’s YouTube page.
