At ESPN, criticism of Skip Bayless apparently was forbidden

ESPN First Take - Skip Bayless Last Show Goodbye T_T
Getty Images

As the guy who once speculated that Troy Aikman is gay prepares to become Aikmans colleague at FOX, Skip Bayless first must disengage from ESPN. And it sure seems like plenty of his colleagues in Bristol arent upset about being his former colleagues.

For years, none of the other ESPN employees called out Bayless for some of his buffoonish opinions on First Take. Now that hes leaving, its open season starting with Scott Van Pelts obvious knock at Bayless after the Cavaliers won Game Seven of the NBA Finals.

So why wasnt there more ESPN-on-ESPN crime involving Bayless in the past? Apparently, it was prohibited.

Via SportsBusiness Daily, Ryen Russillo and Danny Knell addressed the issue of criticizing Bayless during their ESPN Radio show on Monday.

Said Russillo: If [Dan] Le Batard wanted to come on and say, I cant believe Russillo said this, or Mike & Mike cant believe Russillo said this, I would be okay with it. I may disagree with them, [but] I would be okay with it. The problem is when you disagree with Skip, youre not allowed to, and then he gets mad at you about it. So like, nobody wants to deal with it. Thats why when the LeBron stuff comes up, if youre going to be so clearly doctoring the results to keep pushing you dont like LeBron or you dont think hes any good, then go ahead and keep doing it because its clearly great for business. But you cant get mad at other opinion people for being like, Well, thats just insane and I dont even know if you believe it.

Isnt there a time, too, when you just have to go, I was wrong? Isnt there a time? Kanell said.

But its not good for business, Russillo said. Business is good, so I respect that part of it. But were all big boys, we all say stuff, and all of us, because were opinion guys, disagree with each other all the time. But when you disagree with Skip, it gets handled a different way and a lot of us are just like, Whatever. So thats why we never bring it up.

Well, we dont have to worry about it anymore, Kanell added.

They dont have to worry about it anymore, as it relates to Bayless. But which other on-air personalities are or will be insulated from criticism?

Does Stephen A. Smith get the same special treatment? If he previously did, will enough ESPN on-air personalities decide that theyre no longer going to keep quiet when Smith or anyone else who may not react well to being called out says something worthy of criticism?

Clearly, Smith wont react well if it happens. Go back and listen to the PFT Live discussion about Smiths reaction to the suggestion that his hot (and misguided) take regarding the NFLPAs legal bills had been fed to him by the league office. Smith believes that members of the media shouldnt talk about other members of the media, with the exception of any members of the media who exclusively cover the media.

Smith gets riled up when colleagues who work for other companies (which necessarily makes them, you know, not colleagues) talk about him. Imagine what h**l do if his actual colleagues choose to talk about him.

Maybe imagination wont be required. Maybe the Bayless departure will embolden others to speak up, even if it causes Smith to blow a gasket. If enough ESPN personalities do it, whats ESPN going to do? Fire all of them?

Meanwhile, Bayless exits Bristol and its built-in (but shrinking) audience of people who tune in to ESPN because its ESPN for FOX and an audience that has to be built largely from scratch, while he at the same time avoids crossing paths with Aikman.

I will tell you this. Ive not seen Ive not physically seen Skip Bayless since that time, Aikman said in 2011. That was in 95. And I still kind of wonder what I might do to him when I do see him.

As recently as last year, Aikman was still unhappy with Bayless.

Im upset about it because it was made up and there was nothing accurate about anything that was insinuated. And he did it, as he does everything, just for attention, Aikman told Richard Deitsch of SI.com in January 2015.

Bayless may have gotten special consideration while at ESPN when saying goofy things. Chances are that Aikman and presumably others at FOX wont be giving him that same privilege once he officially joins them.

UPDATE 11:30 p.m. ET: An ESPN spokesperson forwarded to PFT a quote from Russillo.What I referenced yesterday was something personal between me and Skip, Russillo said. It had nothing to do with ESPN policy. Its a fair point, but theres a huge difference between policy and practice. If in practice, criticism of Skip Bayless triggered internal complaints from Bayless that were supported directly or indirectly by management, ESPN policy is irrelevant.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/06/21/at-espn-criticism-of-skip-bayless-apparently-was-forbidden/