Speaker 1: Today's a different day because of where I have to
Speaker 1: get started and where I have to finish. There's only
Speaker 1: going to be one subject discussed today, and it's where
Speaker 1: we're getting started. It's involving some news that broke yesterday,
Speaker 1: involving Shannon's Sharp, my colleague at ESPN, and my friend
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame. Tight End was sued on Sunday
Speaker 1: by a woman proceeding under the name Jane Doe pseudonym.
Speaker 1: The thirteen paid civil complaint filed the Nevada allegens that
Speaker 1: Sharp committed assault, sexual assault, battery, and sexual battery. The
Speaker 1: plaints of allegeds Sharp sexually assaulted her several times at
Speaker 1: the end of twenty twenty four in the beginning of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. The suit also alleges that Shannon engaged
Speaker 1: in the intentional infliction of emotional distress. It should be
Speaker 1: noted that the suit was filed by attorney Tony Buzby.
Speaker 1: This is the same attorney that filed a suit again
Speaker 1: Sin jay Z and p Diddy alleging they both sexually
Speaker 1: assaulted a minor, which has since been withdrawn. Jay Z
Speaker 1: also has countersued Buzzby. By the way, the plaintiff in
Speaker 1: a Sharp civil suit is not the woman heard in
Speaker 1: the accidental Instagram live stream incident that made headlines last
Speaker 1: September of last year.
Speaker 2: In response to the.
Speaker 1: Suit, Shannon and his legal team went to social media
Speaker 1: yesterday and released a series of allegedly sexually explicit text
Speaker 1: messages between him and the Jane Doe. In addition to that,
Speaker 1: they issued the following statement. Quote, this lawsuit, filed by
Speaker 1: Gabriella Zuninga and orchestrated by her attorney Tony Busby, is
Speaker 1: a blatant and cynical attempt to shake down mister Sharp
Speaker 1: for millions of dollars. It is filled with lies, distortions,
Speaker 1: and misrepresentations.
Speaker 2: Will not succeed. End quote.
Speaker 1: Then earlier today, Jane Doe's attorney, Tony Busby, sent TMZ
Speaker 1: sports a one minute and thirty six second clip of
Speaker 1: an alleged conversation between his client and Shannon. In response
Speaker 1: to that clip, Shannon Sharp went back to social media
Speaker 1: and issued this response.
Speaker 2: Take a look to.
Speaker 3: My family, friends, supporters, and colleagues. I want to speak
Speaker 3: to you directly and from the heart. This is a shakedown.
Speaker 3: I'm going to be open, transparent, and defend myself because
Speaker 3: this isn't right. This is all being orchestrated by Tony Busby,
Speaker 3: who is targeted jay Z. Tony Buzzby targets black men,
Speaker 3: and I believe he's going to release a thirty second
Speaker 3: clip of a sex tape that tries to make me
Speaker 3: look guilty and played into every stereotype you could possibly imagine.
Speaker 3: That video should actually be ten minutes or so. Hey, Tony,
Speaker 3: instead of releasing your edit, put the whole video out.
Speaker 3: I don't have it, or I will myself. You know
Speaker 3: what happened, and you're trying to manipulate the media. The
Speaker 3: encounter in question took place during the day at her
Speaker 3: inpretation and now that appears to be able deliver it
Speaker 3: self coordinated by Gaddy also known as Carly On OnlyFans,
Speaker 3: Gaddy and Tony Busby want fifty million dollars. What they're
Speaker 3: getting is sued for defamation and trying to take me down.
Speaker 3: My career is all about real talk and honesty. I
Speaker 3: know my family and fans know exactly what this is about,
Speaker 3: and I'm going to be out there telling you whatever
Speaker 3: I need to say, just like I always do.
Speaker 2: I love all of you.
Speaker 3: Guys.
Speaker 1: Thanks, Well, it's a sad situation. Shannon Sharp is somebody
Speaker 1: I work with a couple of days a week. Shannon
Speaker 1: Sharp is somebody that I brought to ESPN. Works on
Speaker 1: First Take, which is on ESPN every weekday morning from
Speaker 1: ten am to twelve noon Eastern Standard time. He's been
Speaker 1: with me every Monday and Tuesday. We've been number one
Speaker 1: for thirteen years in counting. But since Shannon has arrived, obviously,
Speaker 1: he's helped the show immensely and I can't thank him
Speaker 1: enough for it. We've grown close as friends. I'd like
Speaker 1: to believe that I certainly root for him. I know
Speaker 1: he's been through a lot in life. He's overcome a
Speaker 1: lot of things, and when he departed from Fox, I
Speaker 1: was more than happy to bring him on board here.
Speaker 1: So all I can speak to about is what I
Speaker 1: know based on the reports, and I can speak about
Speaker 1: ESPN and Disney.
Speaker 2: To be clear, even though this podcast, this YouTube show is.
Speaker 1: Owned and operated by me solely, it doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: I'm going to be dismissive of ESPN, who employs me
Speaker 1: in my daytime job on First ac. So I sit
Speaker 1: here before you today letting you know that they are
Speaker 1: aware that this is a subject that I was going
Speaker 1: to broach because I owe them that courtesy. With that
Speaker 1: being said, it's important to point out a couple of things.
Speaker 1: Number One, I was not there. I am not I
Speaker 1: can provide no I in this account. And even though
Speaker 1: I got love and respect for Shannon Sharp and I'm
Speaker 1: sincerely hopeful and prayerful that he is completely innocent of
Speaker 1: the allegations that have been levied against him, I can't
Speaker 1: sit here and speak to his innocence or guilt from
Speaker 1: a knowledgeable place because I have nothing to do with this.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen anything, I don't know anything. I don't
Speaker 1: even know this person. I know what the reports say,
Speaker 1: I know the reports, the things that have been reported
Speaker 1: on a multitude of outlets, from the AP to the
Speaker 1: New York Polls to Ford.
Speaker 2: To TMZ and everything in between.
Speaker 1: I mean, I can't even count the number of publications
Speaker 1: that have talked about it or written about it, networks, etc.
Speaker 2: It's all over the Internet. It's everywhere.
Speaker 1: And I know that I'm fully aware of that. This
Speaker 1: is not a criminal case, so it's not there is
Speaker 1: no concern about him going to jail. This is a
Speaker 1: civil case, which means that he can either be found
Speaker 1: liable or not liable. The accuser in question is seeking
Speaker 1: fifty million dollars. That was confirmed by Shannon Sharp on
Speaker 1: that video today. According to the reports, it's somebody that
Speaker 1: he met in twenty and twenty three who was nineteen
Speaker 1: years old at that particular moment in time.
Speaker 2: According to some audio that was put out.
Speaker 1: Early to this today by Attorney Buzby, you hear the accuser,
Speaker 1: the female, talking to somebody who is alleged to be
Speaker 1: Shannon Shop. We don't know whether that's true or not.
Speaker 1: And the person in question, again, we don't know whether
Speaker 1: Shannon or not. Other the words choke as then I
Speaker 1: will choke the hell out of you if I saw you.
Speaker 1: And so, because of that, knowing that audio was probably
Speaker 1: going to come out, along with additional tapes, whether they
Speaker 1: be video or audio is unclear at this particular moment
Speaker 1: in time, Shannon Sharp felt compelled to come out in
Speaker 1: his own defense. How we the interpret that. Let me
Speaker 1: be very very clear about where I'm coming from. I'm
Speaker 1: a bit torn in terms of his response. On one hand,
Speaker 1: Tony Buzby has sued Jay Z, he did sue Denny.
Speaker 2: He did accuse.
Speaker 1: Them or represented the woman who was accusing them of
Speaker 1: assault of sexual assault and said that she was thirteen
Speaker 1: years of age at the time when talking about jay
Speaker 1: Z and Diddy, and jay Z went ballistic and emphatically
Speaker 1: denied it.
Speaker 2: Wouldn't let it go.
Speaker 1: The case was dropped, and now he's suing Buzzby, mentioning
Speaker 1: words like extortion and other things. So when Shannon Sharp
Speaker 1: brought up mister Buzzby in that video that we aired
Speaker 1: and talked about him being extorted, he brought up mister
Speaker 1: Buzzby and mister Buzzby's past, and he talked about him
Speaker 1: going against African American men.
Speaker 2: There's two thoughts there.
Speaker 1: On one hand, there's the jay Z, who obviously should
Speaker 1: be presumed innocent, not just because you should be presumed
Speaker 1: in cent until found guilty, but because of the man
Speaker 1: in which he fought on his own behalf and has
Speaker 1: been very aggressive and going after Tony Busby in the
Speaker 1: case of P Diddy. In a case of P Diddy,
Speaker 1: you don't know what to believe. Again, the case against
Speaker 1: jay Z was a civil suit. Did he was a
Speaker 1: civil suit?
Speaker 2: But did he?
Speaker 1: You don't know what to believe because of all the
Speaker 1: allegations he's facing, But we can't forget that Tony Busby
Speaker 1: was also the person that represented at least twenty four
Speaker 1: of the twenty seven women.
Speaker 2: That accused Deshaan Watson.
Speaker 1: Of sexual misconduct along with other allegations, and at least
Speaker 1: twenty three of those cases were settled, So.
Speaker 2: We have an obligation to mention that.
Speaker 1: So, on one hand, going on the offensive to defend himself,
Speaker 1: I completely understand where Shannon Sharp is coming from. On
Speaker 1: the other hand, when its legal team issued out the
Speaker 1: press release.
Speaker 2: On x.
Speaker 1: Yesterday and they spoke about they mentioned her name, and
Speaker 1: they revealed some of those explicit text messages, that was
Speaker 1: uncomfortable And I don't know if.
Speaker 2: That's a strategy that would work.
Speaker 1: One of the hardest things in the world for all
Speaker 1: of us to do is to just lay low and
Speaker 1: be quiet and let our legal team do it. And
Speaker 1: we don't always know whether or not that's the right
Speaker 1: thing to do. I know, and I can tell you
Speaker 1: all that I spoke to Shannon, not in details, but
Speaker 1: I spoke to him and he emphatically proclaims his innocence.
Speaker 1: According to mister Busby, his client emphatically proclaims his guilt.
Speaker 1: So where does that leave us. I'd love to tell
Speaker 1: you that I know the answer to that question, but
Speaker 1: I don't. I am the executive producer of First Take
Speaker 1: on ESPN. I recruited Channing. I went and got him
Speaker 1: and brought him to the ESPN. But I'm not the boss.
Speaker 1: Those are other folks. There are layers to this, and
Speaker 1: there are certain layers even I am not on. I
Speaker 1: can tell you I also spoke co chairman of Disney,
Speaker 1: the Boss, Jimmy Pittaro, who made it very very clear,
Speaker 1: we are taking this matter very seriously, and we are
Speaker 1: looking into this very very closely, and once we gather
Speaker 1: as many facts as we possibly can, we will go
Speaker 1: from there.
Speaker 2: And that is all he said.
Speaker 1: And I can mention his name because I received his
Speaker 1: permission to say that. I don't know what that means.
Speaker 1: In my perfect world, this equates to jay Z where
Speaker 1: the cases ultimately dropped and Shannon is allowed to continue
Speaker 1: on First Take and continue to thrive and shine, not
Speaker 1: just that and have a little lustrious career in the
Speaker 1: podcast stratosphere doing Nightcap with Chado Jo Sinko, doing Club
Speaker 1: Shaysha and ultimately gets this one hundred million dollar deal
Speaker 1: that he was all over the news about to sign
Speaker 1: just a couple of days before this report came out.
Speaker 1: In my perfect world, he moves on and somehow, some
Speaker 1: way we find this all to be.
Speaker 2: False.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't seem like that's the way things are
Speaker 1: about to go down. Considering who mister Busby is and
Speaker 1: how emphatic his client is proclaiming that she is right
Speaker 1: and she's telling the truth. I don't know where this
Speaker 1: is going to go. I can't speak to anything else.
Speaker 1: I don't know who Shannon Sharpe's legal team is and
Speaker 1: what they're suggesting. I imagine that everything that has transpired
Speaker 1: has been at the behst of his lawyers, not just himself.
Speaker 1: I can tell you again that when I spoke to him,
Speaker 1: he is emphatic in stating his innocence that this is
Speaker 1: a shakedown.
Speaker 2: To use his.
Speaker 1: Words, how wise it is is it to use those
Speaker 1: kind of words when a civil matter of this nature
Speaker 1: is out there, When you have a podcast and you
Speaker 1: have advertisers and sponsors, and you work for ESPN and
Speaker 1: they have advertised sponsors.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: What can we say, if any of us we're in
Speaker 1: that position and we felt or were proclaiming we were innocent.
Speaker 1: I don't know, and I'm not about to pretend. I
Speaker 1: just wanted to make sure that I echoed to all
Speaker 1: of you that the only reason I spoke on this
Speaker 1: issue is because he works with me two days a week.
Speaker 2: He's on national television.
Speaker 1: He was on national television with me today, he was
Speaker 1: on national television with me yesterday. When the story came
Speaker 1: out Sunday night. I didn't know anything about it until
Speaker 1: we got on the air, but he was on air,
Speaker 1: and if you know him, in part because of all
Speaker 1: the work that he's doing with me and what he's
Speaker 1: doing in this industry. I know everybody's been waiting stephen A,
Speaker 1: what you got to say about this. I got to
Speaker 1: say what I just told you. I don't know what's happened.
Speaker 1: I know I got love for the brother. I know
Speaker 1: that I'm wishing that he's innocent and all of this
Speaker 1: stuff goes away and he can continue to thrive with
Speaker 1: me on ESPN and thrive in his own platforms that
Speaker 1: he worked so diligently over the years to build. But
Speaker 1: anything else would be in entirely irresponsible for me to
Speaker 1: speak on and I can't do that. Yes, I own this,
Speaker 1: this is my platform, but also have a day job
Speaker 1: and also understand what lawyers, what HR and all of
Speaker 1: those other things entail. What I said is all I
Speaker 1: can say, and in all honesty, at this moment, it
Speaker 1: is all I know. I have no idea what direction
Speaker 1: ESPN and Walt Disney will go in when it comes
Speaker 1: to this matter. All I do know is it won't
Speaker 1: be me making a decision. It'll be others upstairs. In
Speaker 1: the end, all of us have someone to answer to,
Speaker 1: no matter how maverick we try to be, and we
Speaker 1: own our own business and we're our sole propriety like
Speaker 1: I am. On this platform and stuff like that. They
Speaker 1: are advertised, there are sponsors, there are people you do
Speaker 1: business with their partners, and.
Speaker 2: There are bosses.
Speaker 1: That's the situation, unfortunately that Shannon Sharp finds himself in
Speaker 1: at this particular moment in time. I sincerely wish him
Speaker 1: the best. I got love for him, and I hope
Speaker 1: all of this is just a sad ordeal that goes away.
Speaker 2: Because there was no truth to it.
Speaker 1: But I don't know, neither do you or the rest
Speaker 1: of us, And the only time will tell what the
Speaker 1: truth is