Polarizing sports pundit Skip Bayless waded into controversy once again this week when he reacted to the horrific mass shooting at a Manhattan skyscraper that left four people dead by expressing relief that the gunman didn’t shoot more NFL employees in the building.
The former ESPN star’s hot take on the tragedy predictably sparked backlash and mockery, with critics noting that the outspoken commentator was essentially saying “thank god other people got killed instead” while wondering “what the f*ck is wrong” with Bayless.
Shane Tamura, a 27-year-old from Las Vegas, entered a Midtown Manhattan office building Monday evening and began “spraying” ammunition with his M4 assault rifle. Tamura then took an elevator up to Rudin Management’s 33rd-floor office, where he continued shooting before eventually turning the gun on himself.
Tamura’s victims included Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner, NYPD police officer Didarul Islam, security officer Aland Etienne and Rudin Management associate Julia Hyman. In a note left at the shooting, Tamura – who was a star high school running back – blamed football and his alleged chronic traumatic encephalopathy for his actions.
The NFL has offices on the lower levels of the skyscraper and local authorities have said they believe that Tamura “appeared to have gone to the wrong floor” during his rampage and intended to target the league’s staff. The NFL has said that one of its employees was seriously injured in the attack.
Following the revelations that Tamura was targeting the pro football league and wanted his brain studied for CTE, Bayless took to social media to weigh in on the developing situation.
“Thank God the New York City shooter apparently took the wrong bank of elevators and didn’t make it to the NFL floors,” Bayless tweeted on Tuesday. “He reportedly bizarrely blamed the NFL for what he believed to be his CTE suffered from playing high-school football.”
The callous nature of Bayless’ tweet – which completely sidestepped the victims of the shooting while breathing a sigh of relief that the NFL offices were spared – led to intense criticism, condemnation and ridicule.
“Truly the all time best rage baiter in history. Even puts goliaths of always being wrong like [Jason] Whitlock to shame,” professional poker player Scott Siever reacted. “Just an all time stone cold moron or a sociopath with no empathy and thus a brilliant calculating mind for creating misery and anger. Not sure which one is worse.”
New York attorney Mark Bederow, meanwhile, mocked Bayless for thanking god “for the fact that he went to a different floor and killed an innocent woman rather than innocent NFL employees,” all while wondering “how is this idiot on TV!”
Mike Isaac, a tech reporter for The New York Times, responded to Bayless’ observation by saying that “every so often” he encounters a “tweet in the wild that is so bad” that it makes him “audibly gasp at my phone.”
Meanwhile, others referenced Bayless’ contrarian television persona and his habit of tossing out regrettable or downright bizarre tweets.
“NOW STEPHEN A, YOU KNOW I DON'T LIKE SHOOTINGS,’ one X user quipped, impersonating a hypothetical exchange between Bayless and his former First Take co-host Stephen A. Smith. “BUT”
This is hardly the first time that Bayless has gotten himself in hot water over a rage-baiting social media post. The then-Fox Sports pundit came under fire in January 2023 when he questioned why the NFL was postponing a football game after Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest on the field.
Bayless’ comments drew rebuke not just from social media critics but also from his Undisputed co-host Shannon Sharpe, who no-showed the following broadcast to avoid a possible confrontation with his colleague. The pair would eventually get into an angry on-air clash later in the week after Bayless defended his refusal to take down the controversial tweet.
In the end, Sharpe would end up leaving Undisputed months later over what he later described as a personal attack Bayless made against him, which showed Bayless’ level of “disrespect.” Sharpe went on to join Bayless’ old home of ESPN, but was placed on a leave of absence after he was hit with a $50 million civil lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault.
The lawsuit was resolved earlier this month.
Bayless, who left Fox Sports in August 2024 after eight years with the network, has also found himself embroiled in scandal in recent months. In a lawsuit filed earlier this year, a former Fox Sports hairstylist accused Bayless of making repeated sexual advances and inappropriately touching her after she began working on Undisputed, claiming he allegedly offered her $1.5 million to have sex with him.
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