EXCLUSIVE: (Updated with more details) Shannon Sharpe will almost certainly not be returning to ESPN‘s First Take next week.
With rape allegations, a $50 million lawsuit, and a derailed multi-million dollar settlement surrounding the NFL Hall of Farmer the Jimmy Pitaro-run cable sports outlet has decided to bench Sharpe from his regular Monday and Tuesday slot on the Stephen A. Smith fronted show, I hear.
Whether or not Sharpe returns to First Take in subsequent weeks is TBD apparently.
Currently Disney-owned ESPN intends to “further investigate,” according to one corporate source, the Jane Doe claims and Sharpe’s insistence this is a “shakedown” and the relationship was untraditional but consensual. Unsurprisingly, the April 22 revelation by Sharpe’s own lawyer Lanny Davis that the Nightcap podcast co-host offered to write his accuser a $10 million check earlier this year to keep this on the down-low has also “raised concerns” at ESPN.
ESPN had no comment on Sharpe being taken off First Take next week. Sharpe’s attorney Davis did not respond to request for comment on the decision by ESPN.
(Update, 12:04 PM: Mere minutes after Deadline posted its story on Sharpe’s future at ESPN, the ex-NFL player posted online that he was “electing to temporarily step aside from my ESPN duties.”
— shannon sharpe (@ShannonSharpe) April 24, 2025
Soon afterwards, an ESPN spokesperson told Deadline: “This is a serious situation, and we agree with Shannon’s decision to step away.”)
In an explicitly detailed lawsuit filed in Nevada on April 20, the now 21-year-old Jane Doe claims the 56-year-old Sharpe raped her and abused her on two occasions in Las Vegas over the last year during a relationship. The couple both admit that they started their relationship after meeting in an LA gym in 2023. Seeking $50 million in damages from the three time Super Bowl winner and very successful broadcast, the civil complaint alleges assault, sexual assault, battery and sexual battery, as well as intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“After many months of manipulating and controlling Plaintiff — a woman more than thirty years younger than he — 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 ‘no,” the 13-page filing claims.
Jane Doe was named publicly online by past Bill Clinton confidante Davis not long after the suit was put in the Sin City state court docket. Similar to many media outlets, Deadline does not identify sexual assault accusers and survivors unless they name themselves. On April 21, Davis also released a plethora of very raw text messages allegedly sent by Doe to Club Shay Shay boss Sharpe over the months that were intended to paint “a clear picture” of a “consensual, adult relationship that included role-playing, sexual language, and fantasy scenarios explicitly requested” by the plaintiff.
Plaintiff Jane Doe is represented by Houston-based Tony Buzbee, who is behind dozens of assault and abuse lawsuits against Sean “Diddy” Combs.
In a video missive put out earlier Tuesday, Sharpe attacked Buzbee’s credibility directly and promised to file a defamation lawsuit against the admittedly aggressive attorney and the OnlyFans posting Jane Doe. That suit has seemingly not be filed as of today, but is expected in the next day or so.
Currently fighting off a legal action from Jay-Z over a now self-dismissed rape case that accused the rap superstar and the much-accused Sean “Diddy” Combs of assaulting a 13-year-old back in 2000, Buzbee confirmed on April 22 that this Jane Doe was “offered $10 million to settle but rejected that offer, choosing instead to proceed with litigation.”
Buzbee went on to say: Sharpe’s team is now trying to discredit and dox her. Sharpe and his team are now, as anticipated, also attacking me. We are not going to be deterred by these tactics.” To that, Buzbee put out an audio tape on April 22 of a man who sounds a lot like Sharpe threatening “I’m going to f*cking choke the sh*t out of you when I see you” to the plaintiff.
Before the $10 million potential settlement news came out, Stephen A. Smith on April 22 spoke of the allegations against his self-declared friend and First Take colleague. Weighing the issues involved and putting Buzbee in some context, Smith had no answers on Sharpe’s First Take future. “I can tell you I also spoke to co-chairman of Disney, the boss, Jimmy Pitaro, who made it very, very clear that ESPN is taking this matter very seriously and we are looking into this very, very closely and once we gather as many facts as we possibly can, we will go from there,” Smith did say.
Even with that, on the verge of inking a new nine-figure deal now that his around $100 million contract with podcast network The Volume is over, Sharpe has stayed very much in the public eye since the lawsuit and its graphic details came out. Besides appearance on his own podcasts and First Take earlier this week, ex-Denver Bronco tight end Sharpe will be at the NFL Draft today in Wisconsin.
As Nightcap‘s Instagram feed noted before the rape suit was filed:
Airing on ESPN, ABC and the NFL Network, the first round of the 2025 NFL draft starts today at 5 pm PT/8 pm ET from Lambeau Field, Green Bay, Wisconsin. It will also be streamed on ESPN+, NFL+, Hulu+ and YouTube TV. Rounds 2 and 3 will be broadcast on April 25 with further rounds 4 through 7 on April 27 at noon ET.
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