Eighteen months ago, when Shannon Sharpe was cut loose from FS1, Stephen A. Smith offered him a prominent role at ESPN on First Take. Now, amid striking allegations of sexual assault and an increasingly ugly legal battle, Smith is striking a different chord with his response.
In a short video for his Stephen A. Smith Show podcast on Tuesday afternoon, Smith revealed that he was unaware of the allegations until they became public during their shared appearance on First Take on Monday morning. He said that when they did speak about it, Sharpe “emphatically” told Smith he was innocent.
However, Smith said he was “a bit torn” about how Sharpe has chosen to respond to the situation.
“On one hand, going on the offensive to defend himself, I completely understand where Shannon Sharpe is coming from,” Smith said. “On the other hand, when his legal team issued out the press release on X yesterday and they spoke about (her), they mentioned her name, and they revealed some of those explicit text messages, that was uncomfortable. And I don’t know if that’s a strategy that will work.”
In particular, Smith does not like Sharpe’s use of the phrase “shake down” to describe the woman’s accusations during an active civil lawsuit, while continuing to appear on First Take and Sharpe’s various digital media properties.
Smith gave credence to Sharpe’s argument that the accuser’s lawyer, Tony Buzbee, has represented plaintiffs alleging heinous crimes from other Black men like Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs. He emphasized that an initial lawsuit against Jay-Z has since been dropped. Yet Buzbee may be most well-known for representing plaintiffs who settled with Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson over sexual assault claims.
“In my perfect world, (Sharpe) moves on. And somehow, some way, we find this all to be false,” Smith said. “But it doesn’t seem like that’s the way things are about to go down, considering how Mr. Buzbee is and how emphatic his client is proclaiming that she is right and she is telling the truth. I don’t know where this is going to go. I can’t speak to anything else.”
Before ending his comments on the situation, Smith mentioned that he has spoken with ESPN chair Jimmy Pitaro. According to Smith, Pitaro “made it very, very clear [that ESPN is] taking this matter very seriously” and expects to determine Sharpe’s future after the company has thoroughly investigated the accusations.
“I have no idea what direction EPSN and (Disney) will go in when it comes to this matter,” Smith said. “All I do know is it won’t be me making the decision. It will be others upstairs. In the end, all of us have someone to answer to. No matter how maverick we try to be.”
While Smith repeatedly stated his hope that Sharpe’s defense would be quick and painless, he did not sound like the man who had visited Boulder for a football game with Sharpe in the fall of 2023 and had once hinted that Sharpe might be the future host of First Take. Instead, Smith sounded like a company man distancing himself from a toxic situation.
Earlier Tuesday, Sharpe’s lawyer acknowledged that Sharpe offered the plaintiff “at least” $10 million to settle before the lawsuit was filed. Both sides are bracing for the release of a new recording of Sharpe and the plaintiff engaging in sexual relations, which the plaintiff alleges was not consensual.
Given how quickly and fiercely the battle has already been in less than 48 hours, Smith’s instinct that the situation could worsen before it improves is probably not far off.