Stephen A. Smith Says No Way Disney Could Let Shannon Sharpe Stay On ESPN Amid Rape Case Revelations

Shannon Sharpe is “absolutely” innocent of the rape allegations and $50 million lawsuit  against him, Stephen A. Smith says he believes of his First Take colleague and friend.

However, the relentless pragmatic sport and cultural commentator also acknowledged Friday it was inevitable that Disney-owned ESPN would cut ties with the NFL Hall of Famer once explicit audio tapes of Sharpe’s sexual encounters with his accuser and news of an unsuccessful $10 million settlement were made public.

“When the news came down that he and ESPN had mutually agreed that he would need to come off the airwaves of ESPN, it was a blow, a blow to the show, a blow to me personally, because I’m going to miss him, but it was not a surprise,” Smith said today near the top of his YouTube and iHeartRadio show.

“He was working at Disney,” Smith said of Sharpe, summing the business side of this up in five words.  “I’ve been at Disney since October of 2003. I know this place. I know the worldwide leader that is ESPN,” Smith added, noting that it was he directly that recruited former Denver Broncos tight end Sharpe for First Take.

As Deadline exclusively reported on April 24 and both Sharpe and ESPN put their own spins on minutes later, the Club Shay Shay boss is now off the cable sports channel and his weekly appearances on First Take.

Before that, a “shakedown” claiming Sharpe was in his regular First Take Monday and Tuesday slots this week even after a very detailed and vivid lawsuit filed in Nevada on April 20.

In that action, the now 21-year-old Jane Doe claims the 56-year-old Sharpe raped her on two occasions in Las Vegas and repeatedly abused over the last year of their relationship. Yet, even with promises from Sharpe of a defamation suit to come against his accuser and her high-profile lawyer Tony Buzbee, more revelations from the defendant’s own lawyer Lanny Davis of multi-million-dollar payout for silence negotiations and a flood of unsavory and violent text messages this week made the situation untenable for the Jimmy Pitaro-led ESPN and its House of Mouse overlords.

Three-time Super Bowl champ Sharpe may have said that he was “electing to temporarily step aside” from ESPN until the “start of the NFL preseason,” but clearly Disney had skin in this sordid game.

“It wasn’t difficult for me to figure out what was transpiring,” Smith outlined today, building on what he had inferred previously online on April 22 about Sharpe, ESPN and Disney. “ESPN and Disney have a wait and see attitude when it comes to whatever evidence they may learn about this entire situation involving Shannon Sharpe from a legal, from a civil perspective.”

“They didn’t need any definitive evidence at this particular moment in time about all of that stuff, once all the things Shannon Sharpe’s lawyer put out there,” Smith bluntly stated Friday of how it all went down this week and audio of Sharpe threatening “to f*cking choke the sh*t out of you” to Jane Doe. “It was uncomfortable to listen to, and it was not something that Walt Disney wants associated with its brand. So, to have him on the airwaves while all of that stuff was put out, that was not something that Disney was going to take. That is what I mean when I say I’m not surprised.”

While not naming Davis directly or his bizarre April 21 virtual press conference, Smith did call the lawyer and former Bill Clinton aide out as “not being impressive in this at all.”

Emphasizing again and again that he didn’t “know a damn thing” about the case beyond his close personal relationship with Sharpe, Smith then concluded the segment on his First Take compadre by exclaiming: “That’s all I have to say, other than I hope he’s back in this business real soon on linear television talking some football, because that man knows his football and he certainly knows how to entertain us while he’s talking about football. I’m gonna miss him.”

After everything that went down Tuesday with the audio tapes and $10 million figure and more on Thursday, Sharpe showed up awkwardly at the NFL draft’s first round on Thursday in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Having said Sharpe still “intends to pursue claims against Gabi and all who have assisted her with the dissemination of her fabricated story,” his lawyer Mitchell Schuster said today.

Sharpe is now also facing claims of rape, stalking and violent threats, plus a 2022 $4 million defamation suit from alleged ex-longterm girlfriend Michele Evans. Schuster addressed that matter by curtly saying: “Ms. Evans became obsessed with Shannon and decided to manufacture a claim against him. When she could not find a lawyer to pursue her outrageous story, she filed a civil complaint on her own that is completely devoid of merit.”

Addressing that $10 million offer to Jane Doe, which clearly complicates matters considerably in terms of perception if nothing else, Sharpe’s team tried to explain the thinking at the time in talks with the plaintiff (who Sharpe and his lawyers have named publicly) and Buzbee. “When she learned that he would not father a child with her, she resorted to extortion, Schuster said Friday. “While Shannon was willing to pay her a substantial amount of money to avoid the intimate details of his personal life from being exposed, as many high-profile individuals often do when they are being threatened.”

A father of three daughters, the unmarried Sharpe is looking to file that promised defamation suit early next week against Jane Doe and attorney Buzbee, I hear. When exactly that might occur is still fluid.

If you recognize Houston-based Buzbee’s name, it’s likely because the lawyer is behind dozens and dozens of abuse and assault suits against Sean “Diddy” Combs, including the now plaintiff dismissed case accusing the Bad Boy Records founder and Jay-Z raping a then 13-year-old in 2000. Now, Jay-Z a.k.a. Shawn Carter is pursuing his own legal action against Buzbee for the pain to his family, reputation and businesses.

ESPN did not respond this evening to Deadline’s request for comment on Smith’s remarks, neither did reps for Sharpe. Having said that, Sharpe’s Nightcap podcast has a show scheduled for tonight looking at Friday’s LA Lakers vs Minnesota Timberwolves NBA playoff match-up.