The Skip Bayless/Joy Taylor Lawsuit Is Bringing Out the Worst in Sports Media

For those who do not engage much in sports media, a hairstylist at Fox Sports, Noushin Faraji, filed an explosive lawsuit alleging, among other things, sexual harassment and misconduct involving executive Charlie Dixon and host Skip Bayless. The claims include unwanted advances, physical contact, and retaliation after complaints. Faraji also cites a toxic workplace culture in the suit.

Faraji alleged that Skip Bayless, a genuinely all-around repugnant human being, accused her of sleeping with his co-host, Shannon Sharpe, offered her $1.5 million to sleep with him, and gave her lingering hugs and kisses. Likewise, she accused Joy Taylor — a former moderator on Skip Bayless’s show Undisputed, and currently the co-host of Speak with Keyshawn Johnson and Paul Pierce — of altering workplace dynamics by sleeping with their boss, Charlie Dixon.

The sports media universe is relatively small, incestuous, and incredibly outspoken because that’s what they’re paid to be. Most sports media personalities have either worked for ESPN or Fox Sports, or both, and everyone seems to know each other, so everyone seems to have an opinion on the suit. Because they’re paid to share their opinions, they’re all weighing in.

Stephen A. Smith, for instance, insists that he knows nothing about the details or circumstances, but continues to defend Skip Bayless anyway because they used to work together.

“The Skip Bayless I know has a hard time giving away $15,” Smith said yesterday, before adding that he “can’t imagine” Bayless propositioning his hairdresser. “He’s one of the cheapest people I know … But that doesn’t mean that I have any inside knowledge of this—I don’t. And I’m not going to get involved,” he said, before continuing to offer his opinion.

Dave Portnoy at Barstool Sports, meanwhile, is calling bullshit on it, which tracks for someone who has likewise been accused of sexually inappropriate behavior. “My bullshit meter is on a hundred million trillion in this Fox Sports lawsuit. Just accusing people of shit doesn’t make it facts,” he wrote on X.

Portnoy also wonders why Taylor was even in the lawsuit. “Cause she was mean to her hairdresser yet simultaneously spilled her guts to her? Makes ZERO sense.”

I understand why a sexual relationship between Taylor and their mutual boss might create complications at work, although I am not entirely sure why Faraji felt the need to suggest that Taylor slept her way into her promotions, particularly when it gives someone as despicable as Jason Whitlock any reason at all to criticize Taylor for “that big rack of hers, her peanut butter skin,” or repeatedly refer to her “big cans” while concluding that Taylor is a “symbol of this whole feminist movement” and the “DEI movement.”

“That’s the real takeaway and that’s the real story from this,” Whitlock asserted. “Joy Taylor is a symbol of this whole feminist movement, this whole Black queens movement, this whole DEI movement. This whole sharing everything with women, and, ‘Hey, there’s gotta be a woman host on all of these shows.’ Well, there’s consequences to that, and this whole system has been set up to create the kind of chaos and division and inefficiency and corruption that we’re seeing spelled out in this lawsuit, [and] all across American media.”

Whitlock also insisted that “putting a woman in a job talking to men about sports” is a job she is inherently “not qualified for” because she’s “talking with people who have really studied sports at a super high level” and that she has nothing to offer “but her sex appeal.”

“How does she get that job? How does she get that opportunity? Because she’s got a big pair of cans and … she’s willing to let other people enjoy those big cans.” Whitlock even admitted that, if he had been forced to work with Taylor ten years ago when she was 25 years old—as almost happened when he was at Fox Sports—that he would have lost “respect for her” because all she has “are those big cans” and “nothing to say” and “so if I have to put up with this, I might as well enjoy those big cans.”

Whitlock’s comments underscore exactly why he has become a pariah in the industry—a loud, misogynistic, and bitter man. His fixation on reducing Joy Taylor to her physical appearance and using her as a symbol to rail against diversity, equity, and inclusion betrays not only his own biases but also his inability to engage meaningfully with the modern sports media landscape. Unfortunately, I fear, this sort of rhetoric may become more prevalent over the next four years in an industry that is already dominated by right-wing voices.