{"id":48382,"date":"2025-07-30T20:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T20:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/48382\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T20:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T20:35:08","slug":"shannon-sharpe-pro-football-hall-of-famer-out-at-espn-just-weeks-after-settling-sexual-assault-and-battery-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/48382\/","title":{"rendered":"Shannon Sharpe: Pro Football Hall of Famer out at ESPN just weeks after settling sexual assault and battery lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0 This report contains graphic descriptions of sexual acts.\ufeff\n<\/p>\n

\n Former NFL star Shannon Sharpe, who has been one of the faces of ESPN\u2019s morning sports debate show \u201cFirst Take<\/a>,\u201d is no longer with the network, a source with knowledge of the situation told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n The breakup between the podcast star and the media outlet comes less than two weeks after Sharpe reached a settlement with an anonymous woman who filed a lawsuit against the famed tight end, accusing him of multiple instances of assault, sexual assault, battery and sexual battery.\n <\/p>\n

\n Sharpe\u2019s attorney did not have a comment on Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Athletic <\/a>was the first to report the split.\n <\/p>\n

\n At the time of the settlement, the accuser\u2019s attorney, Tony Buzbee, said, \u201cBoth sides acknowledge a long-term consensual and tumultuous relationship. After protracted and respectful negotiations, I\u2019m pleased to announce that we have reached a mutually agreed upon resolution. All matters have now been addressed satisfactorily, and the matter is closed. The lawsuit will thus be dismissed with prejudice.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n A spokesperson for Sharpe confirmed the details of Buzbee\u2019s statement and said that the three-time Super Bowl winner would not be commenting further on the matter.\n <\/p>\n

\n The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. The lawsuit originally sought compensatory and punitive damages of more than $50 million.\n <\/p>\n

\n Sharpe\u2019s legal representatives previously described the lawsuit, filed in April, as an attempt to \u201cshake down\u201d the popular podcaster for millions of dollars and said he \u201ccategorically denies all allegations of coercion or misconduct.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Sharpe has also disputed the claims.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cTo my family, friends, supporters and colleagues, I want to speak to you directly and from the heart,\u201d Sharpe said in a video released on X<\/a> in April. \u201cThis is a shakedown. I\u2019m going to be open, transparent and defend myself, because this isn\u2019t right.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In the suit filed in a Las Vegas district court, \u201cJane Doe\u201d accused former NFL All-Pro of \u201cmanipulating and controlling\u201d the plaintiff during a nearly two-year period that started in 2023 as a consensual relationship when the woman was 20 years old.\n <\/p>\n

\n The civil complaint alleged Sharpe, 56, \u201cviolently sexually assaulted and anally raped Plaintiff,\u201d in October 2024 and again in January of this year in Las Vegas, \u201cblatantly ignoring her requests for him to stop.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The suit stated: \u201cAfter many months of manipulating and controlling Plaintiff \u2014 a woman more than thirty years younger than he \u2014 and repeatedly threatening to brutally choke and violently slap her, Sharpe refused to accept the answer no and raped Plaintiff, despite her sobbing and repeated screams of \u2018no.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n When asked if Jane Doe had contacted police during or after the alleged assaults, Buzbee said he could not comment.\n <\/p>\n

\n Sharpe\u2019s attorney, Lanny J. Davis, said the woman was attempting to blackmail his client and that the pair\u2019s relationship was consensual and \u201csexual in nature \u2014 and, in many cases, initiated by her with specific and graphic requests.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The Pro Football Hall of Famer was inducted as part of the Class of 2011. He was drafted by the Denver Broncos in 1990 and retired following the 2003 season as the NFL\u2019s all-time leader in catches, yards and touchdowns by a tight end.\n <\/p>\n

\n Sharpe won two Super Bowls with Denver and then another while a member of the Baltimore Ravens.\n <\/p>\n

\n After his playing career Sharpe went on to a successful television career and hosts the popular \u201cClub Shay Shay\u201d podcast.\n <\/p>\n

\n In the wake of the lawsuit, Sharpe announced he would temporarily take time away from his role on ESPN, where he was one of the faces of the morning sports debate show \u201cFirst Take.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI will be devoting this time to my family, and responding and dealing with these false and disruptive allegations set against me. I plan to return to ESPN at the start of the NFL preseason,\u201d Sharpe said at the time.\n <\/p>\n

\n Following Sharpe\u2019s announcement, ESPN said in a statement, \u201cThis is a serious situation, and we agree with Shannon\u2019s decision to step away.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n ESPN declined to comment on Wednesday, nor did it comment following the settlement on July 18.\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN\u2019s Kevin Dotson contributed to this report.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook Tweet Email Link EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0 This report contains graphic descriptions of sexual acts.\ufeff Former NFL star Shannon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-48382","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\/48382","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=48382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}