On Tuesday morning, Shannon Sharpe officially said goodbye to Skip Bayless, Undisputed and Fox Sports after seven years in an emotional final show.
“Skip Bayless, you fought for me, bro. I’m here because of you. You allowed me to share the stage with you. You allowed me to share the platform. I’m gonna cry in the car, but I’m not gonna cry now,” Sharpe said as he began to get emotional. “The opportunity that you gave me to become what I became, I’m forever indebted to you, I’ll never forget what you did for me. You helped me grow, more than you’ll ever know.”
In true Undisputed fashion, Bayless cut off Sharpe midway through his tearful farewell, leading to Sharpe asking “one more thing” from his longtime co-host.
"You were a worthy adversary." Skip Bayless pic.twitter.com/h2ulQFwVpa
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 13, 2023
“One more thing,” Sharpe said. “All I ask, is when you lay your head on that pillow at night, know I gave you everything I had. I gave you everything I had.”
Bayless had an equally touching thank you and farewell to his partner, calling Sharpe a “worthy adversary.”
“I want to thank you for dedicating yourself to this job,” Bayless said. “It is a veracious beast of a show, day after day after day. You dedicated yourself to this job just the way you dedicated yourself to professional football as a Hall of Famer…I want to thank you for competing as hard as you competed with me because the greatest compliment I could give you is you were a worthy adversary.”
It was an emotional scene, and the sports world had plenty to say about it on Twitter.
Shannon Sharpe is such a class act. The second half of his career in media has been incredible to witness; his evolution as an entertainer and analyst is inspiring. Good luck to whomever has the impossible challenge of filling his shoes (and dealing with Skip) #Undisputed. https://t.co/ipQLpPHqPP
— Steve Pulaski (@stevejpulaski) June 13, 2023
Even in this very emotional moment, Skip still tried to cut him off lmaooo https://t.co/qbxvL68V3F
— Sam Ali (@SamAliSports) June 13, 2023
https://twitter.com/nflandhotdfan/status/1668650396561309696?s=20
This is the most empathy that Skip has shown Shannon the last 7 years lol https://t.co/ZHmXFAvVUM
— Randall Barnes (@AuthorRandallB) June 13, 2023
https://twitter.com/burgermander/status/1668663833529921537?s=20
Bayless had a message for everyone who ever doubted Undisputed: “Did we ever show them?”
