Shannon Sharpe shockingly admits he 'barely talked' to Skip Bayless off the sets of Undisputed

The rift between Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless has been well-documented. However, in a surprising recent disclosure, Sharpe said that he never truly had a solid connection with Bayless to begin with.

In an episode of “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” Sharpe revealed that he and Bayless “barely talked” during their time together at “Undisputed:”

“I didn't have the relationship that I have with the people that I've missed. Basically, Skip would get to work, I would get to work. I was in my dressing room, he was in his dressing room. It was really like a heavyweight fight. We barely talked."

Sharpe added:

“I mean, honest to God. We might say hello when we go to the bathroom. We're passing each other in the bathroom, 'Hello,' that was it. It was not a carry-on conversation. And then, like all of a sudden, we get up there and we do what we do, and we carry on. No, so it was very little communication."

Shannon Sharpe and Bayless co-hosted "Undisputed" for nearly seven year. In those seven years, Sharpe said he only went out with Bayless once.

“In seven years, Skip and I, I think we had brunch once. And that’s okay. I don’t think Skip’s a bad guy,” he said.

“I didn’t develop the type of work relationship with him that I did with some of the guys that I played with when I was in Denver or I was in Baltimore … or some of the young ladies in wardrobe or makeup."

Shannon Sharpe admits he and Skip Bayless had to go their separate ways

Sharpe and Fox Sports reached a buyout agreement that led to his departure from "Undisputed." He joined ESPN's "First Take" alongside Stephen A. Smith on Sept. 4.

Sharpe admitted that he and Bayless needed to part ways.

“We needed to go our separate ways,” Sharpe said. “I wish it could have been handled differently, but it was handled the way that it was, and I will never forget the opportunity that Fox and FS1 afforded me.”

In January, Shannon Sharpe, a former NFL player and a member of the Hall of Fame, had a heated disagreement with Bayless. This dispute stemmed from Bayless' controversial tweet, in which he raised questions about whether the NFL should have halted the Bills' game against the Bengals after Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field due to cardiac arrest following a chest hit.

Sharpe was not present on the show the day after the tweet was posted, and when he returned, he was involved in an intense argument with Bayless.

Many think that the intense argument played a role in Sharpe’s decision to reach a buyout with Fox Sports.

Shannon Sharpe said he was not the type to force a relationship with his co-workers:

“I’m not a guy that’s going to force anything. If you show me you want to have a relationship outside work, I’ll accept that. If you want to have a relationship that’s strictly work and it’s confined to the two and a half hours when we are at work, I’m cool with that too. I’m there to do a job.”