Emmanuel Acho
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A bombshell lawsuit brought by a former hairstylist for the Fox Sports network is alleging that former network host Skip Bayless offered to pay her a high sum for sex while accusing an FS1 executive of sexual misconduct. Further, the lawsuit named network co-hosts Emmanuel Acho and Joy Taylor, with claims that Taylor slept with several key figures at the network for advancement.
Front Office Sports reports that Noushin Faraji, who worked at Fox Sports from 2012 until August 2024, named Fox, Fox Sports, FS1, FS2, Fox Sports Executive Vice President Charlie Dixon, Skip Bayless, and FS1 host Joy Taylor as defendants in the lawsuit that was filed last Friday (Jan. 3).
Source: Travis P Ball / Getty (Dixon is to the right in the photo)
Among the more explosive claims, Faraji says that Bayless offered her $1.5 million to have sex with him after working with the host on the set of Undisputed and allegedly faced sexual harassment and unwanted advances from Bayless. In addition, the suit says that Bayless accused Faraji of sleeping with his former Undisputed co-star, Shannon Sharpe.
The suit also shares a depiction of an exchange between Faraji and Bayless where she attempted to rebuff Bayless by mentioning his wife and Bayless allegedly mentions Faraji’s Muslim faith and the assumption that her father had more than one spouse. Faraji told Bayless that her father was dead.
Faraji added in the suit that Dixon, who was the head of content for FS1, allegedly grabbed Faraji’s bottom at a West Hollywood birthday party. Faraji claims she went to Taylor to report what happened and Faraji said that Taylor allegedly told her to “get over it.”
According to Faraji’s account, she believed that Taylor and Dixon began their affair in 2016 despite both being married. Taylor allegedly invited Faraji out for a drink in Santa Monica, Calif. and when arriving to the bar, she found Taylor sitting with Dixon. Faraji claimed that the body language between the pair suggested a sexual connection. The suit also states that Taylor’s slot on Undisputed was a “reward” for sleeping with Dixon.
Source: ETIENNE LAURENT / Getty
The lawsuit also points to allegations that Taylor used sex to get herself in the door for some of the coveted time slots in the FS1 and Fox Sports space, including sleeping with Acho. Faraji claims she warned Taylor about sleeping with Dixon and Acho at the same time, a warning that was allegedly dismissed by Taylor who believed she had enough leverage to get whatever she wanted out of Dixon.
Faraji is seeking unspecified monetary damages and wants to take the matter to trial. Fox Sports has released a statement regarding the matter while Bayless, Taylor, and Acho have yet to respond to the claims.
On X, the news of the lawsuit have spread wide with reactions going all over the place and zeroing in on the more salacious aspects while largely ignoring the harm Faraji claims to have endured. We’ve got those reactions listed below.
For those who want to go through the 47-page lawsuit, click here.
[h/t Daily Mail]
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Photo: Getty
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Emmanuel Acho, currently a sports analyst and a former professional athlete, is certainly qualified to speak on the happenings of the sports world. However, the former NFL linebacker delivered an awful take that he tried to dress up nicely regarding Angel Reese, and many of Acho’s peers are checking him while other fans are going at his well-manicured fade.
In a now-viral clip shared to social media, Emmanuel Acho, 33, appeared on his Fox Sports 1 program SPEAK to discuss Angel Reese and LSU falling to Caitlin Clark and Iowa during the NCAA Women’s Elite 8 games this past Monday (April 1). While Reese was doing her best while being reportedly hobbled by an injury, LSU fell to Iowa behind the scoring explosion from Clark.
In the postgame press conference, Reese, 21, tearfully explained that after her team defeated Iowa last year for the championship, the vitriol she’s experienced since that epic contest has been too much to bear.
“I’ve been through so much,” Reese said. “I’ve seen so much. I’ve been attacked so many times. Death threats. I’ve been sexualized. I’ve been threatened. I’ve been so many things.”
Despite this, Acho found it necessary to deliver what he framed as a “gender neutral and racially indifferent” —which doesn’t make any sense because you’re discussing a women’s basketball tournament contest featuring a Black woman who is a superstar opposite a white woman who is considered the next great hope for the game. That alone negates the low shot Acho took at Reese’s experience by comparing her tears to that of the animated character, Courage the Cowardly Dog.
People with far more access to Emmanuel Acho have checked him on his dressing down of Angel Reese and the accomplishments of her team. Others are dragging Acho’s name through the mud while others are muting his entire name from their feeds. What’s worse is that the MAGA nuts and closet racists loved the take because of course they did.
Check out the reactions below.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: Penske Media / Getty
Emmanuel Acho‘s mentions are looking like a warzone. The former NFL player, sports analyst and alleged expert on race relations is getting fried on Twitter after media host Van Lathan took him to task over his approach to discussing racism with white people.
Acho was a guest on Lathan and Rachel Lindsay’s Higher Learning podcast on the Ringer and things got awkward on the top topic of race. Apparently, the Texas-born Acho claims he’s able to see both sides of race debates due to his Nigerian heritage.
“When white people say, ‘Well, racism doesn’t exist,’ I know why they say that. Because I’ve been in them rooms when they’re saying that,” said Acho in a clip Lathan shared of the episode. “When I kick it with Black people and they’re like, ‘All white people are racist,’ I know why you’re saying that. All the while, I have the privilege and luxury of not having generational trauma, because my parents were born in Nigeria. So my method is removing some of the sting, because I don’t have that sting, and trying to deliver it in a manner that people can receive it.”
While Acho went on his suspect spiel in the clip, you could tell that Lathan was stewing, ready to pounce. And he didn’t mince his words.
“Let me tell you why what you just said offends me,” began Lathan. “You’re saying that you didn’t have generational trauma, and you didn’t mean it this way, but you saying [that] in some way meaning that your delivery method to white people is going to be either more effective or more sanitized is, to me, dangerous, and let me tell you why.”
This is where things got extra spice, no pun intended.
“Everybody that you just named, and what you’re talking about, does what they do in different ways,” continued Lathan. “I don’t think that any of the things that they do are necessarily harmful, but what I could say, is a Black man, a prominent one, acting as an emotional butler for white people, and serving them the most milquetoast, un-spicy, unseasoned brand of racial discourse and accountability possible, could definitely be harmful. Like, we’re fighting for our lives, and to me, having a conversation like that, at that particular time, it’s not that it’s a different method. Everybody has a different method. It’s that it’s the wrong method.”
The back and forth started trending after Acho took to Twitter to defend his stance, while claiming that Lathan used his friendship with his co-host to attack him on the show.
A Twitter user (@MindThePit) stated, “Emmanuel’s approach was to suggest he’s better equipped than African Americans to speak because he doesn’t have generational trauma as a Nigerian.”
Acho took exception to this assertion and responded: “I made no such suggestion, that was the reach the host of the show made and led the listener to (at the 39:45 mark). I stated my lineage to allow understanding for my predisposition to be *less* hostile. It was giving the listener insight as to why. Not implying I’m better.”
That’s certainly what it sounded like, though. “I’m not sure what you intended to convey by stating your Nigerian background frees you of ‘generational trauma’ and takes the ‘sting’ out of your convos with white people,” tweeted Lathan along with the clip. “But it feels like your purposefully othered yourself from the descendants of slaves. Why?
“By the way Black Twitter is currently packing up Acho, many would agree. Of course, the MAGA contingent is feeling different, but they’re always at the ready to falsely claim racism was just a fad. Also, Acho played victim with the whole “set up” jig.
Check out some of the slander, and education (no generational trauma since his parents are Igbo’s who left Nigeria, really), being hurled Acho’s way in the gallery. The vitriol is intense considering Acho’s hosts his own podcast, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man, which he flipped into a best-selling book.
You can also peep the full convo below.
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