Skip Joyless

Professional sports is in disarray, but even the most jaded of us can find enjoyment in the few unspoiled things, or barring that, by poking fun at the Kafkaesque absurdity of the athletic landscape. All except Skip Bayless, whose joyless, unfunny rants have ruined one too many of my mornings.

His latest buzzkill piles on hate for Dan Marino and Steve Young. The tagline: "Skip Bayless throws the flag at the notion that they were better than Joe Montana." Skip: nobody ever suggested they are better than Montana, you just made up that comparison so you had an opportunity to bitch about two of the best-liked athletes of the last 20 years amid an outpouring of admiration for them on the defining day of their careers.

Bayless is the kind of self-righteous, smug bastard nobody likes. He's the suburban Stephen A. Smith. Why does ESPN insist on putting his columns on the otherwise fantastic Page 2 alongside the hilarious Bill Simmons, insightful Eric Neel, and witty Dan Shanoff (of Daily Quickie fame)? Bayless is intolerable. Given the anal-retentive tone of his columns and constant inability to find anything worth smiling or laughing about, you have to wonder why he's a sports fan at all.