Skip Bayless Roundly Skewered For Attacking Dak Prescott's Depression
Public response to Skip Bayless was swift and negative.
In one of the monumentally ridiculous and heartless diatribes a sports commentator has ever made, FS1's Skip Bayless slammed the Dallas quarterback for being honest in talking about his serious bout of depression after his brother had taken his own life during COVID.
Bayliss started off by telling his audience that they can attack him for his cold hardheartedness if they want.
He knew he was being a jackass before he opened his mouth.
Bayliss started off by saying Dak is the "CEO of America's team. I don't have sympathy for him going public with, 'I got depressed. I suffered depression early in Covid to the point where I couldn't even go work out.'"
Bayless paused and sighed, "Look he's the quarterback of America's team and you know and I know the sport you play is dog-eat-dog. It is no compassion, no quarter, given on the field if you reveal publicly any little weakness it could affect your team's ability to believe in you and the toughest spot."
This is truly an awful thing to say to anybody suffering depression let alone a star quarterback in the NFL.
I know Bayless is a huge Dallas Cowboy fan so maybe he sees this admission as a way for the Cowboys to lose games?
It's hard to fathom the point he's trying to make outside of belittling a man expressing his innermost feelings during a time of emotional crisis.
You can't fake yourself through a deep depression, Skip.
And if any opposing players or coaches used the death of his brother or depression against him in a game they would similarly be despised and vilified just like yourself.
Fox Sports condemned his remarks in a statement:
“At FOX Sports, we are proud of Dak Prescott for publicly revealing his struggle with depression and mental health. No matter the cause of the struggle, FOX Sports believes Dak showed tremendous courage which is evident in both his leadership on the Dallas Cowboys and in his character off the field," the network said in a statement.
"We do not agree with Skip Bayless’ opinion on Undisputed this morning. We have addressed the significance of this matter with Skip and how his insensitive comments were received by people internally at FOX Sports and our audience.”
And then Bayliss did the unthinkable. After he was forced to try and cleanup his asinine remarks, he blamed everybody else for misconstruing them:
“As I strongly stated, I have great compassion for anyone suffering from clinical depression, which is very real. If you are suffering from any form of depression, please seek help."
I am told was misconstrued by many. The only Dak depression I discussed on the show was from an interview he taped with Graham Bensinger,” Bayless said. “Dak said that depression hit soon after the pandemic hit, right after the quarantine. I said (Thursday)”