Cam Newton explains how Skip Bayless 'f**ked up' with the LeBron James, Kobe Bryant of sports media
Cam Newton gave his take on Skip Bayless' reported impending departure from Undisputed on FS1, and invoked LeBron James and Kobe Bryant in the process. The former MVP quarterback said that the controversial TV host's biggest mistake was to mess with two of the biggest names in the sports media world. He compared Shannon Sharpe, his previous debate partner on Undisputed, to LeBron James and First Take host Stephen A. Smith to Kobe Bryant.
Cam Newton said that Skip Bayless is in this situation because of the way he handled those relationships, commenting on his 4th and 1 show,
"He [Bayless] f*cked it up. ‘Cause this is the thing that I look and let me go on and preface it this way I'm going to tell the world or I'm use my platform to tell people the things that other people probably can't say. Okay from athletes or the persons in general you had Kobe Bryant and you had LeBron James and none of them want to f*ck with you right now."
"Kobe Bryant I'm referring to Stephen A. Smith, LeBron James I'm referring to Shannon Sharpe."
Cam Newton said people can now see, according to him, that whether it was in his earlier stint on First Take or his later time at Undisputed, Skip Bayless was being carried by Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe. That explained the moniker of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, as people who had taken on a team and led them to glory on their backs. The former quarterback concluded,
"You worked with both of them and we're seeing now that they carried you instead of how you would make it seem you carried them. You're not the main attraction Skip. You were the co-host being portrayed as if you were bigger or the real reality was you were the co-host."
Skip Bayless once the savior for Cam Newton's 'Kobe Bryant' and 'LeBron James'
Perhaps it is a mark of how much the situation has turned against him that Skip Bayless is being accused of benefiting from his relationship with Shannon Sharpe and Stephen A. Smith by Cam Newton.
After ESPN let the current First Take host leave in 2009, it was on Bayless' assistance that he returned in 2012 to the network and joined the show he is still on now. Similarly, it was Skip who hired Shannon Sharpe as his debate partner in 2016 after moving to Fox and giving the Hall-of-Fame tight end his big break in media. But now the wheels have turned and the Undisputed host is not getting any sympathy.