Skip Bayless has big praise for Barstool Sports

After spending a day with Barstool Sports, Skip Bayless certainly sounds like someone who would love to work at Dave Portnoy’s media company.

Bayless joined the Barstool Sports podcast Pardon My Take with hosts Dan “Big Cat” Katz and PFT Commenter (Eric Sollenberger) last week for a wide-ranging interview featuring discussions on Stephen A. Smith, Shannon Sharpe, Charles Barkley and Troy Aikman among others.

The interview began with Bayless paying the hosts a compliment, claiming he views them as the heir apparent to himself and Stephen A. Smith on First Take . The interview ended with Bayless garnering even more respect for the show PFT and Big Cat have built at Barstool. They, however, have one thing Bayless claims he never had, freedom.

“I had to forge my breakout at ESPN while First Take was often on probation,” the former ESPN and FS1 host said on his own podcast, The Skip Bayless Show . “We were the hellions, we were the rebels. We were against the grain. We were always in trouble, there were suspensions left and right… so many meetings before and after every show. So many meetings with executives as we got called on the carpet. So much executive involvement.

“Then I came out here to Fox and I had to hear, ‘No, please don’t do that’ … ‘Protect the NFL, they’re our partner. Protect MLB, they’re our partner.’ All of this at Fox had just wore me out as it had at ESPN,” Bayless continued. “It was a big reason I left the TV business to get into the digital side.

“So, allow me to stress to you that the greatest thing about what Big Cat and PFT built is that nobody looks over their shoulders. Nobody says ‘don’t,’ nobody said ‘can’t.’ They don’t have show meetings. They can say the f-word! They can say pretty much anything they want to. Man, do I ever envy their autonomy, their independence. Their freedom. But of course, they perform, and they produce. They have the most successful show in all of sports media. So as long as that continues, and I certainly see no end in sight, they are enjoying the greatest ride in sports media history. They have created my dream show!”

Few people will look at Bayless’s career and say, “If only he had the freedom to say what he wants.” But Bayless staying true to contrarian form, is one of those few people who apparently believes he has been muzzled throughout his media career.

To be clear, Bayless never openly lobbied for a job or show with Barstool Sports. But he is untethered after leaving FS1 earlier this year, he’s looking to build his digital presence, he’s looking for relevancy and a platform, and he’s looking to do it some place where he can maintain full autonomy of his content.

It sounds like he wants what his former partner Shannon Sharpe has. A massive digital following with two monster podcasts, a platform on ESPN that might not want him to say the f-word, but they’ll let him act the part out on Instagram Live without repercussions. With Sharpe cornering the market from that standpoint, Bayless might be looking at Pardon My Take as the next best thing.

It’s likely not going to happen. Skip Bayless and Barstool Sports would be one of the most unlikely pairings in media history. Going from the ESPN mothership to the Barstool pirate ship might be the antitheses of seeing your career come full circle. But if Bayless is looking for some sort of renaissance and a new audience, he would have a better chance of achieving that goal with Barstool than he will as an independent podcast host. And they’ll even let him say the f-word.

[ The Skip Bayless Show ]

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