Skip Bayless Tries To Stay Relevant With Absurd Shedeur Sanders Racism Opinion

Poor Skip Bayless. At one time, he was one of the most influential voices in sports media. Now, he's just another talking head, well past his prime, fighting to stay relevant in an ever-changing landscape. To that end, Bayless unleashed an absurd take involving Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders and "racism" in the NFL. 

Talk about hitting all the "Please look at me!" notes, huh? Here's the quote from Bayless in a video he posted shortly after the Browns' preseason game against the Panthers.

"Tonight, Shedeur Sanders made the entire National Football League look like a whole bunch of petty fools. In some cases, racist fools. In many cases, Deion-despising fools," Bayless began the nearly 17-minute-long video. 

Skip Bayless unleashed a head-scratching take calling NFL teams "racist" for not drafting Shedeur Sanders until the fifth round of the 2025 Draft. 

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The former Fox Sports and ESPN pundit went on to say that Sanders should have gone first overall in the NFL Draft. Remember, Bayless unleashed this head-scratching take after just one preseason NFL start. One meaningless game convinced Bayless that Shedeur Sanders went in the fifth round because of petty, racist, Deion-hating NFL front offices. 

RELATED: Shedeur Sanders Makes Baffling Comment After NFL Debut

Now, is there some truth to the idea that Sanders had enough talent to be selected sooner? Yes, there is. However, NFL teams – like all businesses – use cost-benefit analysis. Clearly, many teams felt that the sideshow that might follow Shedeur to the NFL wasn't worth the ability. Perfectly reasonable. 

Could they end up being proven wrong about that? Absolutely. Will they? Who knows? Unlike Skip Bayless, I'm not ready to earmark Shedeur Sanders for the Hall of Fame after a single preseason game. 

That all being said, for Bayless to invoke racism as a reason for Sanders' NFL Draft slide, that's patently absurd. Might some teams have been a little petty, given how Sanders reportedly acted during pre-draft interviews? Sure. Might some not have wanted Deion Sanders interfering in their business? Sure. But did NFL front offices pass on Sanders due to his race? That’s simply not supported by the facts.

Quarterback Cam Ward, who went first overall to the Tennessee Titans in 2024, is black. The first overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft was black quarterback Caleb Williams. Jayden Daniels, another black quarterback, went one spot behind Williams. Black quarterbacks (Bryce Young and CJ Stroud) went 1-2 in the 2022 NFL Draft, too. 

Skip Bayless shows desperation for relevancy with Shedeur Sanders comments 

We've established that the Sanders commentary is absurd for a few reasons, and I could forgive it if it were the only outlandish Bayless commentary. But it's becoming a pattern. 

Two weeks ago, Bayless claimed that Scottie Scheffler should spend less time prioritizing his wife and newborn son to focus on golf. Yes, he really said that. 

Bayless also recently ranted that he was "offended" by Happy Gilmore 2, that Caitlin Clark skipped the All-Star Game just to prove a point (she didn't), and that he felt "bludgeoned and battered by white guilt" after watching the movie Sinners. 

Oh, and he sent this incredibly insensitive tweet following a shooting in the New York City building that houses the NFL headquarters. 

Yes, Skip, thank God he killed other innocent people as long as they weren't the ones who worked for the NFL. 

Bayless is trying to re-invent himself, and there's something to that 

Look, I'm sure this reads as a massive takedown of Skip Bayless. And, in part, it is. But at the same time, I hold no personal ill-will towards the man. Honestly, he was one of the pioneers of the "hot take art" in sports media. Many might believe that was a bad thing for the industry, but he still played a major role in the expansion of sports debate. 

And to be fair to Skip, he's 73 years old trying to make it in a landscape that increasingly favors younger, tech-savvy creators. I don't blame him for ratcheting up his rhetoric to draw an audience. Unfortunately, that's just part of the game nowadays. In fact, Bayless could have just ridden off into the sunset, but if he's determined to keep cranking out content into his late 70s, that says a lot about his drive and worth ethic. 

Those are traits that should be applauded. Say what you want about Skip Bayless, but he's not dumb. He understands that marketing yourself in today's sports media landscape means going viral. The best way to do that is to offer opinions that no one else is willing to offer. Is he going too far with many of those opinions? Of course. 

Does he have a choice? If he wants to remain relevant, probably not.