It's official: Skip Bayless' replacement has been found, and it's exactly who most people thought it would be.
On Monday, ESPN announced that they have found a talking head to replace Bayless, who spent 12 years with ESPN before leaving the company in June to take an eight-figure job with Fox Sports. That replacement is none other than Max Kellerman. In order to join First Take, Kellerman will swap coasts—he currently lives in Los Angeles and hosts ESPN's afternoon show, SportsNation—and take a seat across from Stephen A. Smith, beginning July 25.
Kellerman was originally hired by The Worldwide Leader in Sports in the late 1990s as a boxing analyst before becoming the original host of ESPN's hit show, Around the Horn. While the show was successful, he couldn't agree on a new deal with the network in 2004 and left ESPN to host a show called I, Max on Fox Sports Net. After that show was canceled in early 2005, he appeared regularly on the MSNBC show Tucker while simultaneously doing his own ESPN Radio show. He also continued to show off his encyclopedic boxing knowledge by becoming a broadcaster for HBO.
Over the last few years, Kellerman has co-hosted both an ESPN LA radio show with former NFL player Marcellus Wiley and SportsNation with Wiley and Michelle Beadle. He will no longer be a part of those shows as a result of his new position with FirstTake. His final appearance on SportsNation will take place on Friday.
Kellerman released a brief statement on Monday morning about joining the First Take family.
"I’m thrilled to join the excellent team at First Take," he said in the statement. "Years back, on-the-air and in the hallways of ESPN Radio New York, Stephen A. and I would engage in detailed and thoughtful discussions on sports and every other topic you can imagine. To do that again, now for the First Take audience, is going to be a lot of fun."
Do you think Kellerman is the right man for the job?
