For a few minutes, Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe looked like they had finally buried the hatchet. The former “Undisputed” partners reunited on Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” this week, three years after their FOX Sports relationship fell apart.
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They talked about the seven years they spent arguing across from each other, the chemistry, and the moments that eventually pushed them apart. Bayless even said he missed talking to Sharpe. Former Auburn QB Cam Newton watched that reunion and came away with a very different conclusion.
“When was Skip Bayless going to take accountability for disrespecting, discrediting, and trying to suppress people’s accolades and accomplishments as former athletes?” Newton said on his Oct. 2 episode of the 4th&1 podcast.
Then he made the point that put Bayless back into the conversation. “Why do you think that the show ended? The show ended because you disrespected another man in front of the world.”
Newton was talking about Sharpe, but he was also talking about a pattern he believes existed long before “Undisputed.” The split with Sharpe was about more than the ratings.
One of the biggest blowups came during a December 2022 debate over Tom Brady. Bayless argued that Brady, at 45, was still playing at a level Sharpe never reached.
Sharpe took offense to the comparison. He had won three Super Bowls and was already a Pro Football Hall of Famer. He later said the exchange was one of the moments that made him question whether the two could continue working together.
During a conversation with Stephen A. Smith, Sharpe said that it took a lot for him not to physically confront Bayless and said he felt Bayless had lost respect for him. In contrast, Bayless and Sharpe recently offered a much softer version of the breakup.
In the reunion, both placed much of the blame on FOX. Sharpe discussed being pushed out, while Bayless said he fought to keep his partner.
Bayless later told Sharpe that being forced out ultimately turned out to be the best thing that happened to his career. Newton is not buying a version where the network carries all the blame.
“You’re taking the side of a person that you ain’t even met before,” Newton said while describing what Sharpe was feeling. “And I work with you.”
In truth, FOX certainly played a role in the end of the partnership, but the relationship between the two hosts had already become strained before Sharpe left.
Bayless has been doing this for years. Cam Newton brought up Chris Bosh, Cris Carter, Richard Sherman, and Jalen Rose as examples of athletes who had difficult interactions with Bayless.
The Bosh incident goes back to 2011, when Bayless repeatedly called the Miami Heat forward “Bosh Spice.” The NBA star eventually appeared on “First Take” and directly confronted him about the nickname.
He explained that he could handle criticism of his basketball, but did not appreciate his family name being mocked. ESPN documented the exchange at the time. Carter’s story was more serious.
Carter has recalled an argument with Bayless during their television days that ended with Carter telling him he would never work with him again and threatening to punch him if Bayless spoke to him that way again.
“Cris Carter, he went on record just recently and said, ‘I will not ever work with Skip Bayless ever again. He’s just not a good person,'” Cam Newton said. So, I may be paraphrasing, but he had a strong take about Skip Bayless.”
Then there is Russell Westbrook, another long-running Bayless target. Bayless repeatedly used the nickname “Westbrick” during Westbrook’s difficult Lakers stretch.
Westbrook eventually told him to watch his mouth and not say anything online that he would not say face-to-face. Westbrook’s wife, Nina, also publicly accused Bayless of being disrespectful and a bully. Interestingly, Bayless has continued that fight even after Westbrook’s retirement.
In August 2026, he said Westbrook would not make his personal Hall of Fame, even while admitting that Westbrook’s career would normally be enough for a first-ballot spot.
Former players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson pushed back on the comments. That is what Newton seems to be getting at. Bayless has made a career out of arguing with people and pushing buttons.
Still, the end of Undisputed was not as complicated as Newton suggested. Sharpe left the show in 2023, though Bayless stayed on for one more year. FOX did try with different combinations of hosts.
They brought in Keyshawn Johnson, Michael Irvin, Richard Sherman, Rachel Nichols, and Paul Pierce. None of those versions matched what Bayless and Sharpe had built.
The audience dropped, Bayless’ contract ran out in 2024, and the show eventually ended. Bayless himself admitted that the post-Sharpe format was not working.
He said he was more of a “fire starter” than a moderator and acknowledged that the show was getting beaten badly in the ratings. In all, debate television needs friction. Bayless understood that better than almost anyone.
But there is a huge difference between challenging a player’s opinion and challenging the value of his career.