Skip Bayless Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
Don’t expect Skip Bayless to be on the receiving end of any Taylor Swift friendship bracelets in the near future.
Skip, 73, who formerly appeared on ESPN’s First Take and FS1’s Undisputed, discussed the pop star with his wife, Ernestine Sclafani Bayless, on the Monday, December 2, episode of his podcast, “The Skip Bayless Show.”
“I know I’m un-American, but I am not a Taylor Swift fan,” Ernestine, 62, said bluntly. Skip quickly agreed, saying, “I don’t get her.”
Ernestine, who married Skip in 2016 after dating the sports commentator 10 years, continued, “She seems like she’s a nice person and she does wonderful things for kids and they all love her and idolize her.”
When it comes to the tunes blasting through their home, however, Ernestine isn’t throwing on The Tortured Poets Department.
“I’d rather listen to Bonnie Raitt,” she said. In fact, Ernestine argued Swift, 34, partially has Raitt, 75, to thank for crafting her sound.
“That’s part of where her music came from,” Ernestine said. “It’s very similar.”
Ultimately, Skip boiled the entire conversation down to a question of “hot or not hot?”
Taylor Swift Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images
“Taylor Swift to me? Not hot,” Skip said, before adding, “But that’s just me. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
Ernestine called Swift “a cute girl,” but that’s about as far as the compliments extended. “I know people like her,” Ernestine said, “but she’s not on my turntable.”
Skip cohosted ESPN’s sports debate show First Take alongside Stephen A. Smith from 2012 to 2016, before he left the network and launched FS1’s Undisputed, alongside cohost Shannon Sharpe, in September 2016.
Courtey of Baylon Spector-Instagram; Jamie Squire/Getty Images Buffalo Bills player Baylon Spector’s wife, Ryleigh Spector, is taking a jab at Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce’s girlfriend, Taylor Swift. “9-2!” Ryleigh wrote via her Instagram Story after the Bills ended the Chiefs’ undefeated streak in a 30-21 victory. “Never a Swiftie.” Swift, 34, was not […]
In August 2024, Skip announced he was leaving the show to “pursue other opportunities.”
Skip’s former cohost Smith, 57, had far more positive things to say about Swift earlier this year — especially concerning her attendance at Kansas City Chiefs games in support of her boyfriend, Travis Kelce.
“I have to take a moment to come to the defense of Taylor Swift,” Smith said in January on ESPN. “Everybody’s sitting up there and acting like she’s some kind of impediment.”
Smith continued, “Excuse me, she did her job! That Eras Tour? Off the chain. Generated billions. She’s going to support her dude. To show up at a football game and the cameras are on her — that ain’t her fault! And excuse me, by the way, she went to the games after the concerts. It’s not like she used the games to bump up the concerts.”
