OKC Alumni: Skip Bayless

Forced, due to reasons beyond my control, to watch ESPN's "Cold Pizza," "First and Ten," or "People Screaming At Each Other" -- whatever it's called these days -- I just happened to hear Skip Bayless accuse his co-hosts, who had praised the Detroit Pistons, of being biased, since they themselves are from the state of Michigan. This coming, of course, from a Vanderbilt grad who has repeatedly said that Jay Cutler is the next Brett Favre.

Though Bayless was apparently a somewhat reasonable human being growing up in OKC (an archive search of the Oklahoman shows no record of excessive heads exploding in the area during the late '50s and early '60s), his professional career got off to a rocky start when he wrote a book insinuating -- without any evidence -- that Troy Aikman was gay. That was the start of a nomadic career, where Bayless slashed and burned his way through market after market before coming to his final, lucrative resting place, the Worldwide Leader.

Like all shock journalists, ESPN is the ultimate destination, where lucid, rational opinions and discussion are not only not necessary, but actually discouraged. Freed from the confines of annoying things like "facts" that plagued him in places like Dallas, San Jose, Chicago and Miami, Bayless is finally in hog heaven, getting paid amazingly well to bloviate about how extra points should be eliminated from football. Skip, we salute you!