Cris Carter Once Threatened to Punch Skip Bayless in 'F--king Face' Over Tebow Debate

It turns out that fans weren't the only ones driven to fits of rage when Skip Bayless was pumping up Tim Tebow constantly on television many years ago.

Appearing on the Fully Loaded podcast this week (h/t Ryan Glasspiegel of the New York Post), Pro Football Hall of Famer Cris Carter revealed he once threatened to punch Bayless in the "f--king face" when the outspoken host said brought up Carter never won a Super Bowl on First Take in the midst of a debate about Tebow's quarterbacking skills:

"So, I'm on there doing the show. I do the show and everything. And all of a sudden — this is when the [Tim] Tebow phenomenon was going on, and he was a huge Tim Tebow guy … So I come on there on a Monday, and we're trading barbs and everything. We go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And then I just level said it and was like, 'Listen, if throwing the football is important in the NFL, Tim Tebow will never be a starting quarterback.' So, he got defensive and then he came back and said, 'Well, that's why you didn't win a Super Bowl,' which got nothing to do with nothing."

After the segment ended and Carter removed his earpiece, he said to Bayless: "I told him, 'I'll never be on your show again, and if you ever say anything like that to me again, I'll punch you right in the f--king face.'"

This type of on-camera insult seems to be a pattern with Bayless and his co-hosts. Shannon Sharpe said part of the reason he left FS1's Undisputed last year was because he felt disrespected stemming from a discussion about Tom Brady in December 2022.

There was also a tense on-air moment between Sharpe and Bayless soon after that involving Bayless' comments in the wake of the Damar Hamlin incident during a Monday Night Football game between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals on Jan. 2, 2023.

Bayless' constant feeding into the Tebowmania during his first two seasons with the Denver Broncos in some ways made his career into what it has become. He even wrote a story for ESPN.com in 2012 in which he claimed to have been "EXTREMELY OBJECTIVE ABOUT TIM TEBOW."

It's hard to believe that assessment when Bayless wrote about Tebow for FoxSports.com in September 2021 and included this line as evidence that he could be a great quarterback: "It was as if Tebow began to WILL perfect spirals into the hands of receivers" in the last five minutes of games.

Bayless worked for ESPN from 2004 to 16, primarily as a television analyst on Cold Pizza and later First Take. He moved to FS1 in 2016 and worked with Sharpe on Undisputed for seven years.

After Sharpe left the network to join ESPN, Bayless remained on Undisputed until recently. He announced his departure from FS1 on Aug. 2 to "pursue other opportunities" and teased something could be coming soon.

Carter worked as an NFL analyst for ESPN after his playing career ended. The Minnesota Vikings legend is currently working as executive director of player engagement at Florida Atlantic.