Football great Shannon Sharpe said Thursday that he will “step aside temporarily” from his duties at ESPN in the wake of a $50 million lawsuit accusing him of rape.
The 56-year-old former Denver Broncos tight end said he needs time away from the studios to fight allegations that he called “false and disruptive.”
“At this juncture I am electing to step aside temporarily from my ESPN duties,” he said in a statement.
The first NFL exhibition game is set for July 31 with the regular season likely to kick off on Thursday, Sept. 4. He hopes to be back behind the mic by then.
“I will be devoting this time to my family, and responding and dealing with these false and disruptive allegations set against me,” Sharpe said. “I plan to return to ESPN at the start of the NFL preseason.”
An ESPN representative said that Sharpe, a frequent panelist on the show “First Take,” is right to take a break from the cable sports outfit.
“This is a serious situation, and we agree with Shannon’s decision to step away,” the ESPN spokesperson said.
A woman filed a lawsuit in Nevada on Sunday, accusing Sharpe of raping her twice in Las Vegas in October and one more time in January, according to the suit.
The woman said she was 19 years old in 2023 when she first met Sharpe in a Los Angeles gym, leading to a “rocky consensual relationship” of nearly two years in which he was frequently “aggressive” and raped her, according to the Clark County civil complaint.
Sharpe has denied all allegations.
A representative for the plaintiff could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday.
Since the end of his playing days, Sharpe has had a long career in the studio as a football analyst for CBS, Fox Sports and ESPN.
And in more recent years, he’s launched a popular podcast, “Club Shay Shay.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. The hotline, run by the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN), can put you in contact with your local rape crisis center. You can also access RAINN’s online chat service at https://www.rainn.org/get-help.
Lilia Wood
