It’s been almost a week since the viral congressional letter was sent to address Caitlin Clark’s supposed mistreatment in the WNBA. And after a wave of reactions, opinions, and perspectives from analysts and commentators across the sports world, popular American sports television personality Skip Bayless has decided to weigh in. And his verdict is clear: that letter is going to do far more harm than good.

“I read that 11 Republican lawmakers sent a letter to the commissioner of the WNBA, which the commissioner said she didn’t get. The letter demanding that the league ‘take accountability for multiple attacks versus Caitlin Clark, the face of your league,'” Skip said in a video shared on his official X page on Monday. “As soon as I read this, I just cringed, and it just tore me up. Because this will only antagonize and infuriate all those women Caitlin Clark must play against, and say: ‘See, this is what we’ve been talking about.’ “Did Caitlin Clark encourage these Republicans to send this letter?

“Obviously not. And I cringed because I wonder if any of these 11 Republican lawmakers have any idea how much harder they’re going to make her life while they are preaching their choir.”

One thing Skip Bayless does agree with is that Caitlin Clark has genuinely been a victim of consistent physicality from other players in the WNBA. In fact, this has been the case since her rookie year in the league. But the involvement of Republican lawmakers, in his view, is only going to aggravate the existing dynamic rather than fix it. Throwing political fuel onto an already volatile fire is not a solution. It is an accelerant, as he also wrote in his caption:

“I’ve just never in my lengthy career seen anything like what’s happening to Caitlin Clark. She has done nothing wrong. All the letters in the world from all the Republican lawmakers are not going to fix this situation for her. They’re only going to make it harder and harder.”

And for Bayless, there is a deeper cynicism worth acknowledging here. He does not appear to believe that these lawmakers are genuinely motivated by a desire to protect Caitlin Clark. Instead, he suggested they are simply pandering to “their choir, their voters, their supporters, their constituencies who will love this.” Clark, in this reading, is not the point. She is the vehicle.

And as Bayless made clear, Caitlin Clark did not ask for any of this. Or for the unnecessary complications it will now bring to her professional environment.  For now, Caitlin Clark has not responded to these letters.

How things unfold from here, however, remains to be seen. Hopefully, the situation does not escalate in the way Skip Bayless is predicting.