Skip Bayless might push limits when it comes to his sports commentary, but he wouldn’t dare use the word “punk,” and he’s urging others to follow his lead.
Bayless hasn’t been considered the model for political correctness throughout his polarizing career in sports media. Nor has he been overly careful to avoid insulting professional athletes. But the former ESPN and FS1 host has a problem with hearing “punk” used by sports media personalities and announcers.
“Now I’d like to talk about the word punk,” Bayless began. “A word I hear used a lot in sports today. I hear it a lot, used by sports media commentators. I’m gonna talk about the word punk and its etymology, it’s origin, it’s evolution. I first heard the word punk when I was three years old.”
Three years old? Don’t doubt Bayless. He says he has an autobiographical memory and remembers being in his backyard on the Fourth of July in 1955 while using a punk to light fireworks. Bayless remembers the term being used to describe “bad kids” or “weak-minded, un-tough losers.” He also knows Ashton Kutcher helped turn punk into a verb.
“And then the verb punk’d somehow evolved into part of the sports lexicon. What?” Bayless said with surprise. “Especially in basketball…I began to hear a lot of sports commentators use this term. I’m talking about ex-player commentators, media members. Again and again, I heard the term punk’d…I’m pretty sure that term evolved from a gay slur. In fact, just me, I consider that term a gay slur. I flinch and I wince every single time I hear it spoken on television or radio or digital shows.”
Bayless recalled covering the Dallas Cowboys in the 1980s, where he says he heard the term used as a gay slur.
“Maybe this was used more by the Black players than the white players,” Bayless continued. “I don’t remember that I heard a white player use ‘punk’ as a gay slur. But the phrase I occasionally heard from a lot of the Black players I knew very well was, ‘He’s as happy as a punk in Boystown.’ Hmm.”
“How can you get away with saying that publicly?” Bayless asked. “I sometimes wonder, does the gay community understand the origin of that word? Is nobody in the gay community offended by the very public use of that word? I don’t know. I guess not.”
The term “punk” does seem to have some origins with derogatory context where it was used as a homophobic slur. But was it ever exclusively that? Between punk subculture, punk rock, Punk’d, punked, and punk as a sort of ruffian, the word has enough meanings that homophobia probably doesn’t immediately come to mind for most people when they hear someone say punk.
Bayless has implied LeBron James is a “b*tch.” He dubbed LeBron “Queen James” and called Chris Bosh “Bosh Spice” among other insults he had for professional athletes. So, it’s interesting to learn that “punk” is where Bayless draws a line.