With Shannon Sharpe’s sudden departure from Undisputed following the end of the NBA Finals, Fox Sports has been apparently having a difficult time finding an ideal replacement to banter daily with Skip Bayless.
Sharpe was hand-picked by Bayless when he left ESPN for FS1 because of their chemistry from Sharpe’s previous appearances on First Take, and Sharpe was the rare former athlete willing and capable of doing that much debate television with someone like Bayless. There’s been plenty of speculation as to who Fox will hire to replace Sharpe, but part of the difficulty is finding someone (with an apparent preference for a former athlete) not only willing to get into it with Bayless but who also has the needed respect for Skip to deal with the rigors of a daily morning show with him.
According to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, Skip is once again dipping into the well of athletes he’s sparred with in the past on First Take for a potential candidate, as Richard Sherman has apparently met with Bayless about the idea of joining the show. Bayless and Sherman got into it more than a decade ago on ESPN’s airwaves, with some contentious verbal sparring back-and-forth, but as Sherman begins his foray into TV having joined Amazon’s Thursday Night Football pre-, halftime, and post-game coverage, the well-paying gig across the desk from Bayless is apparently intriguing enough to at least take a meeting.
There are apparently no hard feelings as sources witnessed Sherman and Bayless meeting at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills on Wednesday about the idea of teaming up.
Sherman would be an interesting choice, as he is a big name who is willing to let his personality shine on TV — as evidenced by his Russell Wilson rant from last year’s TNF show — and has the aforementioned history of taking shots at Bayless. Skip welcomes an adversary who will get into the mud with him, but it remains to be seen if Sherman wants to take on a daily show alongside his TNF responsibilities, with Marchand noting FS1 would likely have to figure out how to navigate some absences from Sherman during the football season as that would take precedent.