Fox Sports rebukes Skip Bayless for lashing out at Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott over his depression revelation

New York Post

Prescott revealed on In Depth with Graham Bensinger Wednesday that he has struggled with anxiety, depression and sleeplessness during the coronavirus pandemic, issues that intensified when his brother Jace committed suicide in April. On Thursday, Bayless criticized Prescott on FS1's Undisputed for going public with his depression, saying: "When it comes to the quarterback of a NFL team, you know this as well as I do or better than I do, it’s the ultimate leadership position in sports, am I right about that? You are commanding an entire NFL franchise, what’s the roster at now, 53 guys? … And they’re all looking to you to be their CEO, to be in charge of the football team. Because of all that, I don’t have sympathy for him going public with ‘I got depressed, I suffered depression early in COVID, to the point that I couldn’t even go work out.’ “Look, he’s the quarterback of America’s Team, and you know and I know, this sport that you play, it is dog-eat-dog. It is no compassion, no quarter given on the football field. If you reveal publicly any little weakness, it can affect your team’s ability to believe in you in the toughest spots, and it definitely can encourage others on the other side to come after you. You throw an interception, you’re going to hear ‘You depressed, number four?’ That sort of thing. You get sacked, ‘How’d that feel? You getting down about it?’ You just can’t go public with it, in my humble opinion.” On Thursday night, Fox Sports issued a statement condemning Bayless' comments and saying it was proud of Prescott.  “No matter the cause of the struggle, FOX Sports believes Dak showed tremendous courage which is evident in both his leadership on the Dallas Cowboys and in his character off the field. We do not agree with Skip Bayless’ opinion on Undisputed this morning. We have addressed the significance of this matter with Skip and how his insensitive comments were received by people internally at FOX Sports and our audience.” ALSO: Bayless' ignorant comments are not only offensive, they are dangerous.