Shannon Sharpe Lost His Mind On Skip Bayless Today After Skip Called Him Out For Having A Vendetta Against Tom Brady, And Saying Sharpe Was Nowhere Near The Player That Brady Is

The verb “ride” aka “ryde” gets thrown around a lot around here lately. 

What sucks is the collective of people that leaned on the word the most have recently been exposed, begging the question- did any of these people ever actually “ride” to begin with?

I mention this because I have rode with Skip Bayless since pretty much day 1.

I’m talking back in the Page 2 days, when he really made a name for himself writing some of the best pieces on the internet for what was effectively Barstool Sports before Barstool Sports. From there he was apart of the launch of “Cold Pizza” with that little minx Kit or Kat or whatever. That eventually became First and Ten, which eventually became First Take. Then he got a bag from Fox to jump ship and he lost a ton of eyeballs because nobody watches Fox Sports.

I loved Skip from the beginning for the same reasons I love White Sox Dave. 

He will take his opinion to his grave, there is zero chance in hell you can convince him of anything otherwise, and he never lets stupid things like facts get in the way.

He was the OG internet troll. Unintentionally. 

You could argue Skip walked so PFT could soar. 

There’s a whole other part about Skip that I love about him, having to do with his family life, his upbringing, and his damaged relationship with his Michelin starred brother, Chicago culinary giant Rick Bayless.

(If you’re interested in it, check this out. It’s long but it’s honest, and really well written.)

All of that said, this is par for the course for Skip here.

He went from stating early on in his career the Patriots dynasty was nothing compared to Dallas’ in the 90s, to acknowledging they had lapped Dallas, and everybody else in sports, and that no team would ever come close to replicating what Brady & Belichick & Co. had done.

That’s called logic and being honest with oneself. 

Since coming around, Skip had been one of Brady’s most passionate defenders. 

It’s no secret that daily sports talk and radio need all the controversy they can get in order to draw in viewers. The crazier the takes, and more vitriol they can stir up the better. (See Mike Felger).

But that’s not the case with Shannon Sharpe. 

He has had a personal grudge with Tom Brady seemingly his entire life.

And he’s not alone. 

Some of the longest tenured sports media personalities that used to play, both for lengthy amounts of time and short stints, hate Tom Brady with the fire of a thousand sons.

Marshall Faulk, Chris Simms, Arian Foster, Mark Brunell are just a few of the envious haters that immediately come to mind. But there are dozens more.

Shannon has always been one of the more vocal and obnoxious though.

I remember after one of Brady’s Super Bowl losses (I think it was against Philly in Minnesota) where the next day Sharpe was straight giddy. Floating on air. Smile from ear to ear permanently fixed upon his face. He couldn’t stop laughing. He was happier that Tom Brady lost than he was at any of his own personal accomplishments he’d ever achieved in his life.

This is the zenith of hating. 

There was never a word to describe such a thing because of how sad and vile such an act is, so the always peppy German’s invented one- it’s called “schadenfreude”, and literally means “pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.”.

Sad right?

So, I apologize if I myself experienced a little bit of schadenfreude myself today, watching Skip basically tell Shannon Sharpe he was nowhere near the player at age 35 that Tom Brady is at 45 (vicious burn btw).

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You could tell that one stung because of Shannon’s reaction. 

A man who doesn’t think that, a least a tiny bit, shrugs that comment off and laughs in Skip’s face. He doesn’t flip out like that and start playing the “I’m a man, I’m 40” card.

But sadly, deep down, in places he doesn’t talk about at parties, Shannon knows Skip is right.

Truth hurts my man. 

P.s. - wtf happened to Shannon’s brother Sterling? Who was superior both as an analyst, and a player. Used to be great watching him on NFL Primetime back in the day.