According to one of ESPN’s most outspoken personalities, his bosses were not fans of Tim Tebow during his playing days — no matter what sort of ratings the fan-favorite QB may have brought with him.
It is worth noting that Tebow is currently an ESPN employee.
Stephen A. Smith, the polarizing ESPN personality, took to his podcast on Thursday to address some claims from his former partner in crime, the equally polarizing Skip Bayless, who now hosts a sports debate show for Fox Sports 1.
Smith and Bayless worked together for years on ESPN’s “First Take” before the latter ultimately left to pursue greener pastures at Fox.
Where does Tebow come in? The convoluted tale begins 10 years ago.
Back in 2013, Bayless got into a testy exchange with Seattle Seahawks superstar Richard Sherman on “First Take.” Sherman has since retired from the NFL and is now a rotating co-host on Bayless’ debate show “Undisputed.”
The two discussed their infamous 2013 spat on Monday’s episode of the show.
During their rehashing of the uncomfortable moment, Bayless explained that he had largely held his tongue against Sherman because he and Smith were on thin ice with ESPN.
“‘First Take’ at that point was on probation because we had had several incidents, fortunately not involving me. But we were one day away from our audition period, trying to stay clean,” Bayless said.
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Smith responded to those claims on his podcast — and that’s when Tebow got dragged into this mess.
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According to Smith, Bayless’ hands may have been clean of any “incidents” on “First Take,” but that doesn’t mean ESPN executives didn’t take any issue with him.
“The part that Skip Bayless left out was the fact that the bosses at the time didn’t care [about the growing success of ‘First Take’],” Smith said. “They had remembered that Skip Bayless lived off of talking about Tim Tebow every day before I arrived. [The public] had accused Skip Bayless of being a caricature of himself.
“And even though Skip was incredibly proud of his Tim Tebow coverage, … the bosses weren’t necessarily enamored with it. Skip Bayless was incredibly proud of his coverage of Tim Tebow.
“The bosses felt otherwise.”
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Smith said that for his part, he “didn’t want to talk about Tebow every day … and it stopped when I arrived,” but he admitted that Tebow mania “did elevate the popularity of the show.”
“When they talked about Tim Tebow every day, although it got on folks’ nerves, the bottom line is there were ratings that came from that,” he said.
