Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless had an ‘expiration date’: Colin Cowherd

Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless had an ‘expiration date’: Colin Cowherd

Colin Cowherd thinks “tandems” are hard to maintain in sports media.

Cowherd filled in for John Ourand on “The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast” with The Post’s Andrew Marchand this week.

Marchand asked Cowherd what his reaction was to the news that his FS1 colleague Shannon Sharpe will be leaving Skip Bayless and “Undisputed,” first reported by The Post.

“Well, tandems, and often the more popular they are, all have an expiration date,” Cowherd observed.

“In New York — Mike and the Mad Dog. The bigger you are, the more highly compensated you are. They can be territorial. Now, I don’t know the Shannon-Skip dynamic other than what I’ve read. They were right next to me. Got along fine.


Colin Cowherd spoke about his Fox Sports 1 teammate Shannon Sharpe's impending Skip Bayless breakup on the Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast this week.
Colin Cowherd spoke about his Fox Sports 1 teammate Shannon Sharpe’s impending Skip Bayless breakup on the Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast this week.

“Look, Shannon’s a star, and I think in the opinion space, there’s maybe five-six people that can migrate an audience. And so I think Shannon’s probably one of those. Wherever he surfaces, he’s gonna do really well. It doesn’t matter. I had an agent, Nick Khan, he was a star. He went to WWE. Shocker. He was a star. Michael Rubin creates a company, sells for billions to eBay, and then he starts Fanatics, worth billions. Peyton Manning, Indy/Denver. It works. Stars work wherever they go. Shannon’s gonna work.”

Cowherd said that he never saw the discord between the partners, and came back to the point that duos usually have a shelf life.

“I’m not in their production meetings,” Cowherd continued.


Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless on
Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless on “Undisputed” on June 1, 2023.FS1

“I stay as far away from management as I can with negotiations. Mine have been, thankfully, very quick, very brief, very friendly. But I think tandems are hard. I mean there was Stephen A. [Smith] and [Max] Kellerman. Mike and the Mad Dog. Shannon and Skip. Mike and Mike [Golic and Greenberg].

“I think they have an expiration date. But, there’s not a lot of Shannon’s in the opinion space. There’s a lot of people doing it. There’s not a lot of people doing it at a high level. And Shannon’s theatrical and he’s funny and he’s handsome and he’s on his feet and he’s got strident strong opinions and he cuts through. So, I think he’s gonna flourish wherever he goes.”

Marchand asked about Bayless, who is 71 years old and still stirs up all types of reactions.

“Well, he’s a very unique person,” Cowherd said.

“He’s probably the most private person I’ve ever worked with. He absolutely believes in what he’s saying. From what I can tell. He loves not only debating, but he takes great pride in winning the debate. I tend to like the search for theories. That’s my kind of [thing] — I’m not a debate guy. It’s just not my personality to debate. He was born to do it. He loves what he does. I mean, he is up at two in the morning, he’s on the treadmill.

“I’ve found through the years in the media, I just respect people who, who are passionate about what they do. I mean, you [Marchand] really like to break stories. I can tell. It really is a point of pride. John Sterling loves Broadway show-tunes, old movies and doing Yankee games.”

Cowherd continued to compare Sterling’s vivacious passion for the Yankees with Bayless’ obsession with sports debate.

“[Sterling] loves it. And I didn’t get, when I first heard John Sterling, I didn’t even get it. I’m like, this is the Yankees. And then it’s like, I’ve come to appreciate a passion,” Cowherd said.

“You just can’t, you know, [fake passion]. I think about age a lot more now cause I’m in my late fifties and passion is really healthy. When I find these people that live to be 80 and they do what we do, they almost all have one thing in common. And they don’t always have the healthiest lifestyle there.

“You know, it doesn’t matter if it’s theater, music, arts, they are so deeply embedded viscerally in what it is. Sterling wakes up thinking about the Yankees, goes to bed, thinking about the Yankees. And I think Skip’s like that with sports. He loves winning. I mean, if you told me he goes home and keeps standings on the arguments he wins. I would believe it.”