People say that it can up to two months for someone to form a habit, and after Shannon Sharpe worked with Skip Bayless for six years, he certainly had developed a habit of yelling “Skip” before spitting out hot sports takes.
The only issue is that Sharpe is no longer sitting across from Skip Bayless on Fox Sports’ Undisputed, and actually just started his very day at ESPN’s First Take across from the fiery Stephen A. Smith.
And it looks like Stephen A. was pretty excited about it…
So, on this morning’s show, when Shannon Sharpe was asked a question about the NFL and was gathering for his response, he made what some might call a huge mistake when he called Stephen A. Smith by the name of his old counterpart “Skip.”
You can’t really blame the former NFL tight end for the mishap, considering that it was just a force of habit to be furious at Skip Bayless for more than half of a decade. I guarantee that Shannon even got up this morning, looked in the mirror, and told himself “whatever you do, don’t call Stephen A. Skip.”
However, it did end up happening, and it created for a pretty awkward moment in the First Take proceedings. The show’s moderator, Molly Qerim, threw a question over to Sharpe about the upcoming Thursday Night Football matchup between the Chiefs and the Lions, asking:
“Is Kansas City on upset alert if they don’t get (Chris) Jones back?”
Shannon Sharpe, wearing a very bold green suit that would be perfect for St. Patrick’s Day, takes a second to think about his answer, then says:
“Yes, because if you think about it, the Lions were picked to win that division Skip…”
Shannon immediately closes his eyes and looks down in disappointment, quickly trying to cover his tracks by saying:
“Oh…Skip, (unintelligible muttering) I’m sorry. Stephen A.”
As Sharpe gets back on track with his take about the Lions and Chiefs, you can hear Smith saying:
“It’s okay. It’s alright, it’s alright.”
An absolutely BRUTAL mistake, and one that you can tell clearly got underneath Shannon Sharpe’s skin when he said it.
Take a look:
And he did it more than once…
Stephen A. Smith played it off pretty well, but you know that he probably wasn’t a fan of Sharpe’s slip-up. Smith and Skip Bayless used to battle on First Take for years, and their break up was not mutual and not pretty.
There’s clearly some animosity between the two sports analysts, so for Stephen A. Smith to be called the name of his “arch-nemesis” was not a great start to Shannon Sharpe’s run on Stephen A. Smith’s First Take.
And if you don’t believe me when I say that Stephen A. and Skip Bayless don’t like each other, Smith shared this story on his X account over the weekend with no caption. Clearly the headline says all that Stephen A. wanted to say…
