Skip Bayless Quotes

Field goal kicking is wildly exciting for all the wrong reasons. We regularly interrupt games to go for a ride on the equivalent of Disney’s stomach-in-throat Tower of Terror.

I knew nothing about nutrition until 1982. I had a big turnaround that year and never looked back.

At the risk of damaging the ‘First Take’ ratings, the God’s truth is I do not hate LeBron James. I actually like the man, who seems as close to being a role model as any superstar can be. He seems to be a good father and husband with a sharing, caring heart.

I wouldn’t want to debate me every day.

Sometimes I feel like the easiest target in sports.

Obviously, college stars deserve substantial compensation, right?

Mayweather has boxing genius. But it takes one to know one, and he knew right away Pacquiao also has rare boxing IQ – an equalizing gift for setting up and taking down an opponent.

I’m not a shock jock. I never ambush anybody. I just speak my mind and my heart and my soul.

When Durant was in college, I predicted on ‘First Take’ he would lead the NBA in scoring and began calling him my favorite player.

The great ones are about winning and winning only.

Understand, I’m in awe of Tom Brady. He grows on me by the game.

Give me great players making great plays under the world’s greatest pressure. Give me red white and blue real football.

I grew up a Cowboys fan, attending my first game in 1960, the first year of their existence.

I like to take on athletes who have issues with me.

The No. 1 thing you should know about me: I’ve always tried to put God first in my life, and I’m the first to admit I often have failed because I’m too proud and too stubborn.

I do not hate Andrew Luck.

No player in NBA history has driven me crazier, night after night after NIGHT, than the Thunder storm that can be Russell Westbrook, No. 0.

Inch for inch, the 6-foot-3 Westbrook is the NBA’s most sensationally talented player, a relentlessly explosive basket-attacker with a deadly pull-up jumper – a top-10 NBA player by any big-picture statistical measure from Player Efficiency Rating to Win Shares.

Just my two cents: Even as a Christian, I love boxing because it’s the ultimate stand-alone test of a competitor’s skill and will. Just two opponents, lightly gloved, and a referee ready to jump in and stop it the moment he believes one opponent can no longer defend himself.

Punting is an underrated art because of the strategy, skill and athleticism involved.

Why did John Elway not come back for a shot at a third Super Bowl? He just had had enough.

The Hunger Games’ is for eighth-grade girls! Winners read ‘The Art of War!’

Tear away fantasy football’s fraternal facade and you discover it’s built on megalomaniacal anarchy. Its subliminal message: Forget the team you’ve always rooted for. You be the owner and the GM. You pick and control the players. You be the star, Joe (and Jill) Nobody.

Live TV is physically grueling. I’m concentrating very hard to recall numbers, dates and events to bolster my argument and win a debate. Every eight to 10 minutes, a new sport or topic is thrown at me.

I’m overemotional.

I loved my 12 years at ESPN. And I loved working with Stephen A. – and trust me, it’s hard to even talk about it, because I miss him. But the truth was, I never quite fit on a Disney-owned network.

I say what I say because I believe it from the bottom of my soul and I can back it up.

I closely follow football (and basketball and baseball) for the right reasons, not the alarmingly irrelevant ones.

I’m LeBron’s ‘No. 1 Critic’ and his ‘Biggest Hater.’ I feel a little like Shailene Woodley’s character in ‘Divergent.’ The government is going to eliminate me because I don’t fit in.

My mom was real loud and that made me speak only when spoken to. But even as a child, if you challenged me, you would get both barrels.

I remain unashamed to publicly declare my lifelong love of watching football. I have watched thousands upon thousands of games simply because I cared solely about which team won.

The God’s truth: I never much cared for Tebow when he played at Florida.

I admit I get psycho-competitive.

I want to win every debate and I think I do.

When you watch Chris Paul on the playoff stage, you often sense he is fighting two battles, one against his nature and one against his opponent.

I am not, and never have been, a member of the ‘White Establishment.’

Parcells is one of the all-time great commanders and motivators.

Image and privacy are still everything to Jordan, who has rarely if ever let the outside world see or hear the real Michael.

My father was just an evil man.

I have never, ever, as God is my witness, contrived a single debate in a single show.

Live television is the hottest medium. My passion for sports debate runs hot enough without a camera transporting it into your living room with 10 times more impact.

I boil down people to ‘good heart’ or ‘bad heart’ – meaning they’re basically good or basically not.

By nature, I am quiet off the air.

I haven’t watched one second of ‘First Take’ since I walked off that set.

Punters must catch bullet snaps that sometimes bounce or test their verticals. Then they must aim away from dangerous returners or pierce the wind with low spirals or drop punts into ‘coffin corners’ or stick them nose-first like majestic 2-irons near the goal line.

I believe in God, but I also believe in jinxes.

I merely dared to say Tebow could be a successful starting quarterback in the National Football League – not a Pro Bowler, mind you, just a guy who could win games his way. Which prompted relentless attacks from anti-Tebow analysts and journalists.

I didn’t have a curfew and always slept at friends’ houses, but on Sundays, Mom dragged me to church. It was the best thing she did for me. I was moved just to be there and to feel God had a plan for me.

Chris Paul, president of the NBA Players Association, can lead an entire league but can’t lead his team when it really counts.

I’m perfectly fine with Pacquiao the Christian wanting to separate Mayweather from his senses.

I raced a lot when I was in high school, street raced.

Trust me, you cannot love football any more than I do.

I find that people love to hate me, and a lot of people love to love me.

For my meal replacements, I eat way too many Quest bars. I think you should eat every three hours. I usually wake up once a night, and if I do wake up, I always eat a Quest bar to feed my machine.

I’ve long been offended by not-so-godly pro football players I’ve known who showed up for pregame chapel – Sunday-only Christians rubbing the proverbial rabbit’s foot – then after victories declared it was ‘God’s will’ that their team won.

I never listen to music when I run.

I like fast cars, and I always have.

No doubt Mayweather is the greatest defensive fighter ever.

Though I graduated from Vanderbilt, I was born into a family of crazed University of Oklahoma football fans and became one.

For 10 years while I was at ESPN, I lived at the Residence Inn in Southington, Connecticut, near Bristol. I did that because my wife had a great job in New York City, and we had a place in New York City, at 54th and 8th. On Friday, I would come back, and then on Sunday evening I would go back to the Residence Inn.

The ‘White Establishment’ never liked me. I have worked for ‘White Establishment’ newspapers and television networks.

You will find no bigger media fan of Manziel’s than I am.

Interviewing Michael Jordan is like playing him one on one. If he respects you and especially your media platform and he’s amused by your college try, he’ll let you get off a shot or two. Then he’ll go behind his back, give you a head fake and leave you wondering exactly what he meant by this and that.

No doubt boxing’s brutal beauty lies in the eye of the rooting beholder.

You see far more swings and misses on can’t-miss football recruits than basketball blue chips.

For years I wrote newspaper columns mostly about the teams in my city. There was no cheering in the press box, and I fought to remain objective.

For 30 years I wrote for newspapers and magazines, wrote books on the Dallas Cowboys’ dynasties of the ’70s and ’90s, wrote about Michael Jordan in Chicago and Barry Bonds in the Bay Area, even wrote columns for ESPN.com from 2004 to 2006.

When I was a little kid going to Methodist church, I actually envisioned one day that I would become a minister but I never pursed that.

I can speak only as a white guy.

For me, watching football played in the snow is abominable, as in snowman.