Fox Sports host Shannon Sharpe was lacking from his FS1 present Undisputed he cohosts with Skip Bayless. Sharpe was not on the present following a controversial tweet Bayless posted following Damar Hamlin’s medical emergency Monday evening.
After Hamlin collapsed on the sphere throughout Monday Night Football and as first responders have been giving the NFL participant CPR, Bayless posted a tweet that garnered backlash.
“No doubt the NFL is considering postponing the rest of this game,” Bayless tweeted. “But how? This late in the season, a game of this magnitude is crucial to the regular-season outcome … which suddenly seems so irrelevant.”
Many felt that Bayless’ tweet was tactless because the uncertainty over Hamlin’s well-being was the main target, not the sport. TMZ is now reporting that Sharpe “was upset” over his cohost’s tweet, which could have led to him skipping the present.
When Undisputed went on air Tuesday on FS1, Sharpe was noticeably absent with Bayless saying, “Obviously, my partner, Shannon Sharpe, is not here today. I look forward to seeing him tomorrow.” Bayless additionally apologized to viewers as he went on air to proceed with the present.
“I apologize for what for what we’re going to set out to do here today, if it offends anyone because we’re going to try to do the show pretty much as usual we do the show,” Bayless mentioned. “I’ll admit up front that I’m still shook up about what happened last night to Damar Hamlin. In fact, I’m still wrecked. In fact, I’m not sure I’m capable of doing this show today.”
Bayless continued, “But after barely sleeping on it, I decided to give it a try. Maybe I’ll fail, maybe we will fail but we’re going to try. We wrestled through much of the night, whether to even do a show today because it felt like, in our minds, we almost can’t win with this because the last thing we want to try to do is come off as insensitive to what this young man is going through in a life or death situation. The last thing we want to do is offend anyone by trying to do what we always do which is talk about sports.”
On Monday evening, after Bayless seen the backlash he tweeted a clarification of his earlier tweet saying, “Nothing is more important than that young man’s health. That was the point of my last tweet. I’m sorry if that was misunderstood but his health is all that matters. Again, everything else is irrelevant. I prayed for him & will continue to.”
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