{"id":454938,"date":"2026-02-07T18:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T18:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/454938\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T18:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T18:39:08","slug":"shannon-sharpe-wants-to-go-back-to-espn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/454938\/","title":{"rendered":"Shannon Sharpe wants to go back to ESPN"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, ESPN severed ties<\/a> with Shannon Sharpe after he was sued for sexual assault and battery<\/a>. Now, Sharpe would like to return.<\/p>\n

In a Radio Row interview with Front Office Sports, Sharpe made it clear that he\u2019s interested in mending fences.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to go back if they were to call<\/a>,\u201d Sharpe said. \u201cBurke [Magnus], Jimmy [Pitaro], Dave Roberts. That is their call. But obviously, I\u2019m more than willing, I\u2019m more than capable. They see what we do here on Nightcap. They see the numbers that we generate. . . . I still have a fan base. I still have a big following. If a reunion is in order, I\u2019m amenable to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

ESPN declined comment to FOS regarding Sharpe.<\/p>\n

Sharpe eventually settled the lawsuit, after his lawyer admitted publicly that Sharpe had offered at least $10 million<\/a> to resolve the case before it was filed. <\/p>\n

More recently, Sharpe and his Nightcap co-host Chad Johnson were named in a $100 million lawsuit<\/a> filed by Lions fan Ryan Kennedy, who claims they defamed him by stating he had provoked a December 2025 altercation with Steelers receiver D.K. Metcalf by using a racial slur and by referring to Metcalf\u2019s mother with a profane and misogynistic term.<\/p>\n

Beyond the Nightcap viewership, Sharpe\u2019s ace in the hole could be First Take head honcho Stephen A. Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cStephen A. never left my side,\u201d Sharpe told FOS. \u201cWe still talk. We probably talk more now than we did when I was actually on the show. He\u2019s been great. He\u2019s always been in my corner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether that\u2019s enough to get ESPN back in the Shannon Sharpe business remains to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year, ESPN severed ties with Shannon Sharpe after he was sued for sexual assault and battery. Now,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-454938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}