Stephen A. Smith is now the executive producer of First Take, which has been a pillar of ESPN midday programming for well over a decade.
Smith has long credited his former co-host Skip Bayless for his success and for making First Take what it is today. But Smith has never shied away from talking candidly about Bayless, who he says remains one of his closest friends even after Bayless left the show and the network.
In fact, Smith went so far as to call his good friend and former co-host a “professional contrarian” in an appearance on The Mike Missanelli Podcast.
“He’s different, man. He’s definitely different,” Smith told Missanelli when asked about Bayless and his sports takes. “What I will tell you is this. Skip is a genuine, authentic, professional contrarian. He firmly believes in thinking that he thinks differently than anyone else on the planet. He is diametrically opposed to flowing with conventional wisdom. He believes that he sees what no one either sees or don’t have the courage to verbalize like he does. That’s how he thinks. And for people who think he makes stuff up…not at all, he believes it.”
Since leaving First Take, Bayless has built a similar debate style program with Shannon Sharpe on FS1 called Skip and Shannon: Undisputed. Bayless, who has always said he hates being called a contrarian, has kept up his ways with his new network, and has built another successful show with the Hall of Fame tight end.
