Skip Bayless says Stephen A. Smith begged him for help returning to ESPN: ‘He would call me every day’

Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith altered the landscape of debate television by joining forces on First Take, but getting there was a years-long battle with ESPN.

For years, Smith has openly credited and thanked Bayless for making him a full-time debate partner on First Take in 2012. Smith has since molded First Take into his own show by giving Max Kellerman the boot in 2021 and watching Bayless leave ESPN by his own will in 2016. But Bayless didn’t just bring Smith to First Take, he helped bring him back to ESPN.

“Stephen A. got pushed out the back door in Bristol,” Bayless said during his recent appearance on All The Smoke. “They did not renew him and I don’t know, you’d have to ask him the real backstory, but he came out here to Fox Sports Radio and he was here for, two years? You can ask my wife about this, he would call me every day and say, ‘Can you get me back on the Worldwide Leader?’

“And I would beat on every door in that building. You can ask them all if I didn’t just keep saying, ‘What are we doing? This is ridiculous. He’s gifted, he’s a force, we gotta get him back here.’”

Smith’s first stint at ESPN ended in 2009 before he eventually landed as a morning host on Fox Sports Radio, which is where he broke the Big 3 to Miami news in 2010. ESPN eventually brought Smith back in 2011, but was very slow to reinstate him, making the talented media personality climb the ladder all over again through a local midday radio show in New York.

“Finally, I think it took two years,” Bayless said. “They imposed their will on him because he was too full of himself – I guess – and made him sort of ‘crawl back’ if you will and they let him ease back in on New York radio and writing for New York ESPN dot com. I was just ashamed of it. But I kept fighting because then I was going solo on First Take with a rotation of guest debaters.”

Bayless said First Take ratings were already going “through the roof” during the 2011 “Tebow season.” At the time, ESPN was allowing Smith to make weekly appearances on First Take. But at the end of that season, Bayless insisted on having Smith as a full-time debate partner on First Take.

“I wanted to be able to sleep peacefully because I had my man back,” Bayless said.

[All The Smoke]