Sports commentator Skip Bayless has faced widespread backlash after reacting to a mass shooting in Manhattan by expressing relief that NFL employees were not among the victims. The shooting, which occurred on Monday evening at a Midtown office building, left four people dead, including a police officer and a Blackstone executive.
Bayless tweeted on Tuesday: 'Thank God the New York City shooter apparently took the wrong bank of elevators and didn’t make it to the NFL floors. He reportedly bizarrely blamed the NFL for what he believed to be his CTE suffered from playing high-school football.' The tweet was widely condemned for its apparent lack of empathy towards the victims.
Critics accused Bayless of being callous and self-centred. New York attorney Mark Bederow mocked him for thanking God 'for the fact that he went to a different floor and killed an innocent woman rather than innocent NFL employees.' Mike Isaac of The New York Times said the tweet made him 'audibly gasp at my phone.'
The shooter, 27-year-old Shane Tamura, reportedly targeted the NFL due to his belief that playing high-school football caused his chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The NFL confirmed that one of its employees was seriously injured in the attack.
This is not the first time Bayless has faced criticism for controversial social media posts. In 2023, he questioned the NFL's decision to postpone a game after Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest, leading to an on-air clash with his then-co-host Shannon Sharpe.
