Dan LeBatard: Ego Driving Skip Bayless

Dan Le Batard

Dan Le Batard didn’t wait for fellow ESPN talking head Skip Bayless to leave the network to rip into his longtime co-worker, according to The NY Post.

Earlier this week, ESPN announced Bayless is leaving when his contract expires in August. SI.com reported that Bayless agreed to a deal with Fox Sports that will pay him $5.5 million a year over four years, plus a $4 million signing bonus.

Le Batard thinks Bayless is making a mistake.

“Skip Bayless doesn’t think he’s going for money,” Le Batard said Thursday morning on his radio show, via The Big Lead. “Skip Bayless thinks he’s going to make a difference. And he’s not. What’s been happening with the athletes is happening in the gasbag business.”

Skip Bayless

Le Batard, who also has used the “gasbag” in a self-deprecating way, said he believes Bayless will not bring with him to Fox Sports the massive audience he enjoys on “First Take,” working alongside Stephen A. Smith.

“The ego of these guys is such that they don’t believe they’re choosing money over winning,” Le Batard said.

“They believe they are going to make the difference. It’s happening right now in the sports opinion business. I told Colin Cowherd [who also left ESPN for Fox Sports] not to leave this spot. We were having conversations — now I’m revealing private conversations that I shouldn’t be — even though it would have benefited us, I was telling Colin Cowherd I don’t think you leave. You leave, you’re going to get lost, you’re going to do it for money and no one’s going to know where to find you. We don’t do this to have your voices stuffed in a drawer; we do this to be heard.”