Fox Sports’ Skip Bayless Defends Widely-Condemned Rant Belittling Cowboys QB Dak Prescott’s Bout With Depression: My Comments ‘Misconstrued By Many’
Fox Sports’ Skip Bayless defended his widely-condemned Thursday rant criticizing Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott for opening up about his mental health battles.
Addressing the controversy on Undisputed on Friday, Bayless said that part of his comments were “misconstrued by many.”
“The only Dak depression I addressed on yesterday’s show was from an interview he taped with Graham Bensinger. Dak said, that depression happened soon after the pandemic hit, early in the quarantine. I said yesterday, that if Dak needed help for pandemic depression, he should have sought counseling then,” Bayless said.
Bayless also urged those fighting depression to seek help, as a chyron displayed contact information for the national suicide prevention hotline.
“As I strongly stated [Thursday], I have great compassion for anyone suffering clinical depression, which is very real,” Bayless said.
The initial comments from Bayless were widely condemned. Fox Sports was among those who denounced the remarks.
“We do not agree with Skip Bayless’ opinion on Undisputed this morning,” the network said in a statement Thursday. “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.”
On Wednesday, Prescott went public with his mental health battle — disclosing to interviewer Graham Bensinger, in a syndicated show set to air in full this weekend, that he sought help for anxiety and depression brought on by the pandemic and by the death of his brother — who committed suicide in April.
Bayless, in his Thursday rant, criticized Prescott for speaking so candidly.
“I don’t have sympathy for him going public with ‘I got depressed, I suffered depression early in COVID, to the point that I couldn’t even go work out,'” Bayless said. “Look, he’s the quarterback of America’s Team, and you know and I know, this sport … it is dog-eat-dog. It is no compassion, no quarter given on the football field. If you reveal publicly any little weakness, it can affect your team’s ability to believe in you in the toughest spots, and it definitely can encourage others on the other side to come after you. … You just can’t go public with it, in my humble opinion.”
Watch above, via Fox Sports.
