Skip Bayless, Joy Taylor, and Fox Sports did not engage with the news cycle around them the day after Front Office Sports broke the news of a bombshell lawsuit accusing Bayless, Taylor, and FS1 executive Charlie Dixon of sexual battery, wrongful termination, and forging a hostile work environment.
But that didn’t stop former on-air talents at Fox, and other sports media personalities, from sounding off on the salacious suit filed by ex-FS1 hairstylist Noushin Faraji in Los Angeles on Friday.
“If this is true about Dixon and his head doesn’t roll, he must have naked pictures of [Fox executive chairman/CEO] Lachlan Murdoch,” a source close to Fox told FOS. But another ex-Fox talent predicted Bayless, Dixon, Taylor, and Fox itself would be exonerated once the “real facts” of the case come out.
Marcellus Wiley, a former cohost of FS1’s Speak for Yourself, knows the people involved. (The name of the show was shortened to Speak after Wiley departed the show in 2022.) On his YouTube channel, he warned this could just be the beginning.
“What’s going to come of this? More lawsuits and more names. Unfortunately or fortunately—I ain’t picking no sides—what Noushin wrote, at least some of it I know for a fact is real. Take it from there.”
As he read through the 42-page suit, Wiley had the sense things would probably get uglier.
“Listen to me: I never heard that Charlie Dixon and Joy Taylor were sleeping together, but upon hearing that, I am not going to lie to y’all, it makes a lot of things make sense. It unlocks a lot for me,” he said. “Some of those things absolutely positively were true, were factual, were actually said. She accused somebody in that lawsuit and then I know the people in the lawsuit and I’m like, ‘Yeah, they told me that,’ and I never thought of it in this context because it was never unlocked until the allegations. ‘Oh, this was all the way from the top.’ I was under the understanding that [personnel decisions were] … talent showing who was more talented. But now hearing that it may have started up top, that’s a whole different animal.”
Devin Abney, one of Faraji’s attorneys, released the following statement to FOS on Monday: “Our client looks forward to being vindicated and hopes this will compel Fox to take meaningful and substantial steps to address and resolve the toxic workplace that has impacted her and many of her colleagues.”
Meanwhile, Jason Whitlock speculated on X/Twitter that the suit amounts to sweet “revenge” for Bayless’s former on-air partner Shannon Sharpe. Whitlock said he doesn’t believe all of the allegations. But Wiley’s former partner on Speak for Yourself knows enough about the internal politics at Fox studios in Los Angeles to take it seriously. He addressed the suit on his own YouTube show Monday.
“It has an air of truth to it. Do I think everything is told accurately? No. There’s lawyer-spin on any lawsuit. A lawyer is always going to twist a lawsuit and make it as sensational and embarrassing as possible,” said Whitlock. “But when you read through that lawsuit, and she’s citing dates and times, and talking about her diary, and talking about I went to human resources on this day or that day, she’s not pulling all of that out of her rear end. She’s got receipts for what she’s talking about.”
In the suit, Faraji claims Bayless pursued her for years, even offering the single mother $1.5 million to have sex with him. “Mr. Bayless then told Ms. Faraji that he fantasizes about having sex with her and asked how much money it would take for her to have sex with him,” the suit alleges. “Ms. Faraji stated that she already refused $1.5 million and that her answer wasn’t going to change. Mr. Bayless replied, ‘The more you say no, the more I want you.’”
On his eponymous YouTube show Monday night, Stephen A. Smith said he can’t “imagine” the penurious Bayless offering a woman $1.5 million for sex.
“The Skip Bayless I know has a hard time giving away 15 dollars. He’s one of the cheapest people I know.”
“All I could tell you is that it’s not the Skip Bayless I know, but obviously this is a legal matter he’s going to have to deal with because this situation doesn’t appear to be going away,” Smith continued. “The people that I’ve spoken to in the last 24 hours that have some knowledge about [Faraji] say that she’s meticulous with her details and she’s going to chronicle things and that’s how she operates. I don’t know her. I know Skip and I’m very, very heartbroken that he finds himself in this situation being accused of these allegations. But I can’t be all over the airwaves being irresponsible and attaching truth or guilt.”
Why would the disciplined Bayless risk his $8 million per year gig to pursue an extramarital fling at Fox? He’s famously devoted to his wife, Ernestine Sclafani Bayless, with the couple sharing a podcast. Off the air and in person, the Oklahoma native is far from the fire-breathing enfant terrible you saw on FS1 and ESPN. Instead, he’s more of a soft-spoken, Southern gentleman.
But it’s not unbelievable if you know the hypercompetitive Bayless, noted Whitlock. By the halfway point of their seven-year on-air partnership, the relationship between the feuding Bayless and Sharpe had become toxic. Bayless may have made the mistake of trying to compete with the younger Sharpe. Whitlock points to a portion of the suit in which Faraji claims Bayless angrily accused her of sleeping with his costar.
Taylor was back on the air, as scheduled, alongside Keyshawn Johnson, Paul Pierce, and Michael Irvin for Monday’s episode of Speak. Taylor did not address the lawsuit.
As with any lawsuit, it’s important to take the claims with a grain of salt. At this point, these are allegations; no more, no less. It’s also revealing that Fox chose not to settle with Faraji before her suit became public—even though the network probably realized her lurid claims would go viral.
Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports, is no stranger to controversy. He tweeted that his “bullshit meter” went off about the allegations.
“Just accusing people of shit doesn’t make it facts. Time will tell. I will say I think all the accused shouldn’t listen to their lawyers + should loudly be defending themselves if they are innocent,” he wrote on X/Twitter.
Portnoy added: “Again I got no inside info on this lawsuit. I just think it stinks to high heavens and feels like a shakedown so I’d reserve judgement before burying people.”
The outspoken Barstool boss also questioned why Taylor was even named in the suit. If she and FS1 colleague Emmanuel Acho were in a consensual relationship, as the suit alleges, then that’s their business, he tweeted (Acho was also on the air Monday morning).
On Sunday, after FOS published details of the lawsuit, Acho deleted a September 2022 video he had posted to Twitter in which he praised Taylor.
“Do you all know how hard it is for a woman to get into a position that she’s in?” Acho said in the expunged post. “So often, there’s misogyny and sexism running rampant in sports and we don’t care what women have to say in sports. But Joy is not only in the position on television as a woman, as a Black woman, but as an opinionist. … It’s hard to do, and Joy, you have done it.”
NFL Network reporter Jane Slater thanked Portnoy for standing up for Taylor. “Joy is seriously one of the hardest-working girls I know. A true friend to girls. So kind every time I was there doing a show. Not an ounce of jealousy or hate. She was cranking out content during Covid from home when others waiting for assignments,” Slater tweeted. “It’s really annoying the way she is getting dragged without receipts and proof.”
On Sunday, Fox released the following statement to FOS: “We take these allegations seriously and have no further comment at this time given this pending litigation.”
Sharpe trolled his partner’s old “It’s my turn” declaration on his Sunday Nightcap YouTube show with former NFL wideout Chad Johnson. But the Pro Football Hall of Famer also made it a point to distance himself from the suit.
“That has nothing to do with me,” Sharpe said. “There’s nothing to address. In those 42 pages, it doesn’t mention that Shannon Sharpe did anything. But you all want to get clicks, so you mention me.”
Faraji and Bayless could not be reached for comment.
