Cris Carter says he once nearly got physical with Skip Bayless.
Carter, the Pro Football Hall of Famer, appeared on the “Fully Loaded” podcast earlier this week and explained how he almost came to blows with Bayless on the set of ESPN’s “First Take”.
“A number of years ago, I was on a show with Stephen A. [Smith] and Skip Bayless,” Carter said, as covered by Awful Announcing. “I was working at ESPN, doing NFL. I would do Mike Greenberg after doing my NFL stuff and then I would come on there because Stephen A. and I were friends. I didn’t know Skip personally, and I’m gonna be honest with you: Skip Bayless was not one of my favorite people.
“So, I’m on there doing the show. I do the show and everything. And all of a sudden — this is when the [Tim] Tebow phenomenon was going on, and he was a huge Tim Tebow guy … So I come on there on a Monday, and we’re trading barbs and everything. We go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And then I just level said it and was like, ‘Listen, if throwing the football is important in the NFL, Tim Tebow will never be a starting quarterback.’ So, he got defensive and then he came back and said, ‘Well, that’s why you didn’t win a Super Bowl,’ which got nothing to do with nothing.”
Carter said that he removed his earpiece and threatened Bayless after the segment was over.
“I told him, ‘I’ll never be on your show again, and if you ever say anything like that to me again, I’ll punch you right in the f–king face,” Carter continued.
Bayless sent a statement to The Post in response to Carter.
“Cris and I sparred often on ‘First Take’ during the Tebow run in 2011 but I have zero memory of him telling me he was going to punch me in the face,” Bayless said.
“I do remember him giving me advice during a commercial break at midseason: ‘Trust me, you chose the wrong horse.’ I just shrugged and said: ‘We’ll see.’ All Tebow did was lift a 1-4 team to a division championship and a playoff win over Ben Roethlisberger’s Steelers, with his arm and his legs and his physicality and his playmaking will.”
Warning: Graphic language
Carter had said on the podcast that he had little interaction with Bayless when the two were colleagues at FS1.
“Right away at FS1 in 2016, I got along great with Cris and loved having on the show several times a week during that first NFL season,” Bayless’ statement continued.
“We flew a private jet home from the Super Bowl, and mid-flight he sat down by me and asked if he could be on ‘Undisputed’ full-time. I liked the idea and bounced it off Jamie Horowitz, the head of the network, who said no, they needed Cris on ‘First Things First.’”
When Tebow and the Broncos were making their run in 2011, which culminated with the stunning playoff win over the Steelers, the ratings on “First Take” were popping.
There were times when “First Take” on ESPN2 was challenging the viewership of “SportsCenter” on the flagship network as the two programs aired head-to-head, which was unheard of at the time.
As The Post first reported, Bayless left “Undisputed” earlier this month and has not yet revealed his future plans.