Ernestine Sclafani Bayless and Skip Bayless on "The Skip Bayless Show." Ernestine Sclafani Bayless and Skip Bayless on “The Skip Bayless Show.” (The Skip Bayless Show on YouTube.)
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It seems somewhat unusual for someone facing a sexual misconduct lawsuit to be publicly offering dating advice. But that’s what former Fox Sports personality Skip Bayless is now doing. Bayless, who’s an individually-named defendant in a wide-ranging lawsuit former Fox Sports hairstylist Noushin Faraji filed in January, has been accused of inappropriately touching Faraji, repeatedly propositioning her despite her refusals, and even offering her $1.5 million for sex. So that makes the 10-minute dating conversation Bayless and his wife Ernestine Sclafani Bayless had on their video podcast this week seem a little odd in context:

On a just-what’s-said level, the conversation here isn’t that unusual. The Baylesses had this conversation in response to listener Richard from the U.K., who discussed the trouble he was having finding a relationship. And most of this is them criticizing the current state of dating sites, which is far from a rare opinion.

Ernestine starts this by talking about posing as her sister on dating sites to try and help her find a relationship, with that not really working. Skip (starting around 4:30) agrees with the dating site criticisms and adds he doesn’t think bars are a great option, saying “The bar mentality is the guys are looking not for long-term,” which Ernestine disagrees with. She also talks up the value of connections through friends or acquaintances. Skip, meanwhile, after saying “I don’t want to get too spiritual about this,” says “You just have to trust a higher power. I guarantee that there’s somebody out there for Richard.” The two of them also talk (4:15) about how they had a long-distance relationship for 10 years with Ernestine living in New York and Bayless working in Connecticut at ESPN, but how they would be together every weekend.

The Baylesses also talk about how they met (starting around 7:10), with that having an unexpected role for Entourage actor Kevin Dillon (“Johnny Drama”). There, Skip says “I look back at how I met the women in my life, and by far the most important woman in my life is you. I was single in New York City for an entire year, it was right at a year when I met you. And I met you by total accident one day when you brought Kevin Dillon to my show to be on the show, and you were there in the green room and I accidentally ran past the green room and saw you. And the rest is history; as you always say, our lives were never the same after that moment.” And, around the nine-minute mark, Ernestine talks about looking for wedding bands on men she meets to see if they might be a fit for her sister, and Skip says with a laugh “Oh, I thought you were going to say for you.”

If this podcast had come out a year ago, there wouldn’t be much to note about it. The Baylesses’ thoughts on dating sites and discussion of their history is interesting, but not unusual. But it’s rather strange to have this kind of in-depth conversation about dating and romance without noting the multimillion-dollar lawsuit in the room. And yes, Bayless has filed a defense to that (and interestingly enough, done so on his own rather than through Fox) denying “each and every allegation of the Complaint, and the whole thereof,” but that includes one affirmative defense (of 33) of “Any recovery on Plaintiff’s Complaint, or any purported cause of action alleged therein, is barred because Plaintiff consented, by words or conduct, to the conduct alleged in the Complaint.”

Of course, the lawsuit against Bayless and Fox is at an early stage, and Faraji’s claims have not been proven in court. And it’s not that surprising that Bayless is continuing on with his podcasting despite this lawsuit.

But while Bayless’ sports rants on the Eagles and Cowboys and even hockey in that venue are to be expected, it’s more unusual to see him spending 10 minutes discussing relationships and dating with his wife amidst this. And it’s perhaps especially unusual to see him promoting that discussion as its own segment on YouTube and X, which led to a lot of people commenting on that. Here are some of those responses.

Bayless certainly hasn’t shied away from takes that draw criticism in the past, so perhaps he’s fine with how this is playing out. And attention does lead to clicks. But this segment, and the promotion of it in particular, definitely set him up for some mockery.

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

View all posts by Andrew Bucholtz