The demon child of debate, Skip Bayless, may be looking for a new gig. It seems the loud mouthed, hate filled, ESPN employee is now a practicing Buddhist, according to reports from the always reliable source, Twitter. If you know anything about Buddhism, you understand that it promotes peace and acceptance of your fellow man and yourself. If you are aware of Bayless’s act, then you know he makes a living by arguing and yelling at other people. The Skipper gets into heated debates about inconsequential topics in order to fill up time on ESPN until real programming begins later in the day. The peaceful forces of Buddhism and the vitriolic forces of Baylessism will be hard to reconcile in my opinion.
We reached out to ESPN representatives for comment on the news about one of their high profile talking heads going Buddhist on them. They basically said they had no opinion on any ESPN worker’s religion or lack of belief. But they did hint that any outside forces that adversely affected an on air personality could cause issues with their programming. They would not elaborate, but that is what I am here to do. Basically, if Skip Bayless and his new found faith get in the way of ESPN’s agenda of “moronic debate for the sake of more moronic debate”, then Bayless can be replaced. There is a mile long line of guys who would like to deposit that nice ESPN draw for simply pretending to be outraged at what their debate opponent has to say each day.
Bayless will have a hard time keeping his gig at ESPN if he finds himself just nodding approvingly with everything Stephen A. Smith has to say. I can see it now, Smith would get weary from shouting down a tranquil Skip Bayless who just sits in the Lotus position smiling, and humming. It is hard to have a fake argument when one party no longer wants to participate, but rather seeks enlightenment and wants to hug everyone on an hourly basis.
If this Buddhist conversion is a reality, then I congratulate Skip on his new found happiness. Even if it costs him his fake debate job at the evil 4 letter network, it will be worth it for him. Bayless was apparently a well thought of writer early in his career, but now has turned into a caricature of everything wrong with journalism at ESPN. I would imagine that Bayless has to take a hand full of sleeping pills each night just so his conscious allows him to get some rest. Being an obnoxious jerk can really take a toll on a man. Congrats to Skip on his apparent transformation.
