Stephen A. Smith explains why he welcomed Skip Bayless back to ‘First Take’

Credit: ESPN

Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless picked up where they left off a decade ago when Bayless made his return to First Takeon Friday.

In many ways, Stephen A. Smith has given Skip Bayless a lifeline to what has been a dying media career. After several years at FS1 across from Shannon Sharpe on Undisputed, Bayless drove his partner away. And in many ways, Sharpe outshined Bayless after Undisputed‘s demise… at least until he ran into his own personal problems that led to his own ESPN departure.

For his part, Skip Bayless has had to deal with accusations of impropriety of his own during his time at FS1, although the lawsuit filed by a former hairstylist with allegations against Bayless and others was ultimately settled. Bayless had his own fledgling podcast and had been making appearances with Gilbert Arenas before making his sudden ESPN return. But he was welcomed back with open arms by Smith and First Take. And on his SiriusXM Straight Shootershow, Stephen A. Smith explained why he felt he owed Skip Bayless the favor.

“It doesn’t matter what has happened in my career on First Takeon ESPN, the fact is it wouldn’t have happened without his support. Skip was fighting all those years, those couple of years I was gone, it was Skip that was fighting for me to be back. And when I got back and was restricted to radio by ESPN, it was Skip that was fighting to have me on First Take. And when we first started off it was on Wednesdays and I was limited to the first segment of hour number two of on Wednesdays. And it was that that ultimately materialized into me coming on for the whole show every Wednesday and thereafter ultimately he fought for me to be on permanently,” Smith said.