“It came across between the lines, like you’re sending a message to CeeDee, you are not living up yet to 88.”
Skip Bayless claims to love the Dallas Cowboys, but the Dallas Cowboys don’t always appear to love Skip Bayless.
Earlier this week, former Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant tweeted “Cowboys” to Davante Adams, seemingly trying to recruit the Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver to Dallas. Bayless, however, surmised the tweet was also meant to be a dig at current Cowboys wideout CeeDee Lamb, an assumption Bryant strongly pushed back on.
“It came across between the lines, like you’re sending a message to CeeDee, you are not living up yet to 88. That’s what came across to me. You’re not fulfilling your destiny that that number pins on you,” Bayless said citing the success of past Cowboys wide receivers who donned the number 88 including Drew Pearson, Michael Irvin, and Dez Bryant, albeit to a lesser extent.
“This number is hallowed, this man took it all the way to the Hall of Fame,” Bayless said pointing to Irvin. “Dez had his moments, but he never quite lived up to what Michael Irvin did, and now the onus and the responsibility and the legacy falls to CeeDee.”
Irvin, however, tempered Bayless from sparking any unfavorable rumors about Bryant’s relationship with Lamb, stating they speak regularly in their 88-group chat. According to Irvin, he, Bryant, Pearson and honorary group member Post Malone text with Lamb after every game. And if Irvin’s denial of a brewing rift between Bryant and Lamb wasn’t enough, Bryant decided to weigh in and savagely debunk Bayless’s theory.
“Ceedee Lamb is Him!” Bryant tweeted at Bayless Friday morning. “He’s more than worthy of 88 He’s lived up to 88 and going to go further than I ever did! I wanna see it and I support him 1000% Talking dumb the way you do is why your show ratings low! It’s 88 Club over here don’t ever get it twisted.”
Harsh. But If Bayless is going to taunt athletes for not winning games and championships, then athletes trolling him for severely trailing Stephen A. Smith in the ratings battle is a fair response.
The ratings battle can’t be boiled down to simply faulting Bayless for “talking dumb,” Smith will always have a leg up because tuning to ESPN remains habitual for thousands of sports fans. But despite Bayless’s best effort at playing the hits by incessantly talking about the Cowboys, the early ratings return on his revamped version of Undisputed wasn’t great.
[Dez Bryant, Undisputed]
