Cari Champion’s hiring at ESPN has become the latest point of contention between her and Stephen A. Smith, more than a decade after she joined First Take as its moderator. Champion worked alongside Smith and Skip Bayless from 2012 to 2015, but a recent conversation between the three-time Emmy nominee, Smith, and Jemele Hill reopened questions about how she landed the job in the first place.
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The issue came up during a nearly three-hour appearance by Smith on Champion and Jemele Hill’s Flagrant and Funny podcast, released in two parts on September 2 and 4. Smith argued that he played a key role in getting Champion hired, explaining that Jamie Horowitz wanted her on the show but told him that Bayless was opposed to the move. “Skip Bayless did not want to hire you,” Smith told Champion. She immediately pushed back, replying, “Neither did you,” and accused Smith of giving himself too much credit for a position she had worked for years to earn.
Smith has continued defending his account in the weeks since the conversation. Now, he has gone directly to Bayless, the person whose approval was at the center of the story, to settle what happened behind the scenes when Champion joined ESPN. On his SiriusXM show, Smith asked Skip whether he had lied about anything he said regarding Cari Champion’s hiring on First Take.
“No. I can give a bit more background if you will,” Skip responded. “You were pro [Steve] and I [Skip] was iffy on it, but then I had a talk with her. We spoke for about an hour one day, and I finally said, whatever, you know, if this is what you guys want, let’s go with it.”
Bayless’ admission that he was initially “iffy” about Champion also supports part of the story Smith had been telling. Smith has maintained that he did not claim to have hired Champion himself, but that he was the one who spoke to Bayless and helped get him on board with her hiring.
Smith then recalled how the selection process unfolded after the auditions.
“Jamie sent me to speak to you because he knew that I was supportive of her coming on, but he sent me to go to you to convince you. And you said, fine, you wanted to meet with her,” Smith recalled.
Champion’s issue with Smith is less about whether he spoke to Bayless and more about how much credit he gives himself for what happened. She had already built a career in local television and at the Tennis Channel before joining ESPN, and she felt Smith’s version made it sound as though her place on First Take depended largely on him convincing Bayless to approve her. That is why she pushed back when Smith brought up Bayless’ hesitation, arguing that the story left out the work she had done to get herself to ESPN in the first place.
Smith has repeatedly maintained that he never claimed to have hired Champion himself.
“I never said that I was responsible for bringing [her] on board,” Smith said on his SiriusXM show. “What I said was it was me that had to go to you to convince you to sign off. That’s how she got hired. And that’s all I said. But for some reason, I’m not appreciating her hard work that previously from the Tennis Channel or somewhere else. And I’m like, what do you want me to say? I went to the man to help get you on board. What else do you want me to say?”
Smith intends to set the record straight by maintaining that he never meant to diminish Champion’s work before ESPN. While Bayless backed Smith’s account of those conversations, he made it clear that he wasn’t interested in taking sides in the dispute with his former co-stars. Instead, he tried to put the whole thing to rest, making it clear that he still has a lot of respect for both Champion and Hill.
“It was a long time ago, and it happened, and you both got it out on the table – what one side thought happened and what the other side thought happened,” Bayless said. “I appreciated our time with Cari, and then she moved on, and I wish her nothing but the best because I enjoyed working with her. And I say onward and upward for everybody involved.”
Bayless’ recollection may have cleared up his role in the story, but it is unlikely to end the disagreement over how Champion’s hiring has been remembered. That part of the story still belongs to Smith and Champion. For now, though, Smith and Bayless are moving on, with the two set to share the First Take desk again as Bayless returns to the show.