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Troy Aikman Blasts His New FOX Sports Coworker Skip Bayless

Strong words from Aikman on his new colleague.

Skip Bayless, the Hot Take's prodigal son, is back on television yelling about Tim Tebow, Johnny Manziel, and Tony Romo, which is great for Skip Bayless, I guess. It is not so great for Troy Aikman, though, who openly despises Skip and is not happy that they are now coworkers. Speaking to Sports Illustrated, the former Cowboys quarterback unleashed a Sorkin-esque takedown of Bayless:

"To say I'm disappointed in the hiring of Skip Bayless would be an enormous understatement," Aikman said. "Clearly, [Fox Sports president of national networks] Jamie Horowitz and I have a difference of opinion when it comes to building a successful organization. I believe success is achieved by acquiring and developing talented, respected and credible individuals, none of which applies to Skip Bayless."

Skip spent the better part of his pre-television career crafting his #embracedebate persona as a writer at the Dallas Morning News who would just make shit up, like his claim that Troy Aikman was gay. Troy Aikman is not gay, and has been pretty pissed about it ever since Bayless wrote that in his book on the Cowboys, Hell Bent, in 1996. So when given the opportunity to shit all over Bayless, Aikman shat all over Bayless.

And I'm sure Horowitz loves it. For instance, this right here is a post about Skip Bayless and FS1. People are buzzing about Second Take on FS1 because Aikman had harsh words for a new, controversial colleague. What are the chances FS1 releases a statement today—or, say, tomorrow morning before the show starts—expressing disappointment with Aikman's comments while also hoping to move forward collegially?

It is as close to a lock as a lock can be. This is the same network that in addition to Bayless, employs Jason Whitlock, Colin Cowherd, and Clay Travis. This network is specifically designed to piss people off and create a firestorm of chatter around whatever these four goobers say. All four of them are pseudo-contrarians, they see the way the wind is blowing on a certain subject and then craft a Take around the minority view. How else to explain Skip's Tim Tebow obsession? Or Travis's defense of Donald Sterling?

Troy Aikman is right on. At least he has one thing going for him: nobody's watching FS1.