The Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless relationship dynamic on FS1s hit show “Undisputed” has played out in the media pretty heavily the last couple months. It all began in December with Sharpe firing back at Bayless for taking a shot at him over a disagreement about Tom Brady. While that on-air squabble never really festered, it wasn’t long before another situation arose between the two hot-take analysts.
This time it stemmed from what Sharpe and many others deemed an insensitive tweet concerning Bills cornerback Damar Hamlin near death encounter in early January. Sharpe showed his disapproval of Bayless’ actions by not showing up for work the next day.
That brought a very heated face-to-face to sort out their differences, and eventually the two came to a happy medium.
During a recent appearance on SiriusXMs “The Adam Schein” podcast, Sharpe the Pro Football Hall of Famer elaborated on things a bit.
“We had a bad two months,” Sharpe said when describing his current relationship with his co-host as of now. “I wasn’t gonna allow two bad months to ruin six years of a great working relationship.”
While the two aren’t really that close off camera, they’ve managed to keep a great working relationship, and that was tested tremendously from December to roughly February.
Sharpe Says Bayless And Stephen A. Smith Are Much Closer And Relatable
Sharpe, the three-time Super Bowl-winning tight end, also expounded on the reason why he and Bayless aren’t nearly as close as Bayless and ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith. And it stems from the fact that he’s a former athlete who crossed over into the world of sports, albeit as an analyst/commentator. And this is what the aforementioned Bayless and Smith have done for years.
“We have a great working relationship,” Sharpe said. “Skip and I are not a close as Skip and Stephen A. Smith, because Smith comes from the same background that Skip does. They did things together. I’m more of a homebody. I’m more of a loner. I’m to myself. If Skip likes you, Skip wants to hang out, he hangs out with Stephen A. … Most of the time it’s just me and my dogs in my home.”
“I think it helps our relationship on-air that we are not that close,” Sharpe continued. “He doesn’t know what I’m thinking, and he doesn’t know what I’m going to say. I don’t know what he’s thinking, and I don’t know what he’s going to say. So, I think it helps us television-wise. It might have hurt our personal relationship, but I definitely think it’s helped our on-air relationship.
“So, for me, we had a bad two months. We got in the room and worked it out. We realized that we were better together than apart and we just made sure that, look, we’re going to color between the lines.”
Bayless and Stephen A. Smith are longtime friends who worked together on ESPNs hit show “First Take” for years. So that dynamic of him and Sharpe being anything like that was never gonna happen.
Bayless And Sharpe Are FS1’s Top TV Team
Just like Bayless and Stephen A. were the top team on ESPN for a long stretch, it’s the same thing with Bayless and Sharpe at FS1. The company eats well off these guys, so it needs this relationship to continue to work. And for about two months it looked as if it wouldn’t last much longer. Since cooler heads have prevailed, and the money is always looking good for a few hours of giving your sports opinion, it now seems like the tandem will be tearing up the television for the foreseeable future.
