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They say you've got to give the example before you talk about somebody. Well, you can fault Skip Bayless for a lot of things, but not for being a hypocrite on that.
The 'Undisputed' commentator revealed during Thursday's live show that both he and Shannon Sharpe, his fellow star, accepted Fox's proposal to take a pay cut during the COVID-19 pandemic to relieve funds from the company as the revenue went down as a result of the effects of the global health emergency.
Skip has become somewhat of a meme because of the number of times he's said on live shows that LeBron James should've taken a pay cut to free cap space on some of his teams. At least when it came to his side, he did what he asked of LeBron James.
When it became clear that the COVID-19 pandemic was going to affect the finances of a lot of businesses, enterprises from all over the world asked for their employers to take a pay cut during last year. Fox Sports was one of those.
While Aaron Rodgers' situation is unfolding this week, Skip and Shannon were talking about the economics of professional football and how Rodgers' decision not to take the vaccine but lie that he was a vaccinated player was a problem for the financial aspect of the league.
Skip Bayless then revealed on-air that, just like the owners lost millions of dollars during 2020 because of the pandemic, FOX also lost a ton of money, and they asked some on-air personalities to take a pay cut:
"We lost so much money that they had to ask us, as many companies did, to take a pay cut, am I right?" said Skip. "And what you're gonna do? Okay, I will. Is the pandemic my fault? No, but okay, I gotta take a pay cut. Aaron didn't have to take a pay cut, but now he's gonna to take some kind of fine, suspension that's gonna have to affect him personally."
Back in April 2020, Variety reported that FOX Corporation's top executive Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch would forego compensation through September 30 and that lots of on-Air personalities would also take pay cuts as the company grappled with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a prepared statement last year, Fox Sports said of the pay cuts:
“Given the unprecedented times we are in, we have asked many of our broadcasters to join our executives in taking a temporary 15% salary reduction. Fox Sports is a family and we are facing these challenges together.”
With a lack of sports events to broadcast, revenues fell off a cliff not only for Fox Sports, but for basically every major company in the world. It's good to see that Skip and Shannon accepted pay cuts when the world was dealing with an unprecedented situation that demanded selflessness from everyone.
