Stephen A. Smith confirmed he wants Shannon Sharpe.
On Friday, the ESPN “First Take” host addressed the rumors of the move with Sharpe, who left Skip Bayless on FS1’s “Undisputed” in June, after Smith teased his Twitter followers about the upcoming news.
“Look for me on Friday, Folks! I’ll be addressing all the things I need to address,” he tweeted.
“I’m not going to tell you it’s true, but I’m not going to tell you it’s not,” Smith said slyly on his YouTube channel about Sharpe joining the show.
“Yeah, the talks are serious. I want this brother on ‘First Take’… I want him to have a shinier light placed on him than a few of the times we last saw him,” he continued.
“I am not throwing shade at him and especially not my man, Skip Bayless.”
The feelings seem to be mutual, as the Hall of Fame tight end told USA Today it would be “great” to collaborate with Smith while hinting at a career announcement in the upcoming days.
This would be a big step for Sharpe, 55, coming from the FS1 show that averaged 154,000 viewers.
A potential move to “First Take” would enable him to continue to build on his podcast “Club Shay Shay,” which boasts 1.23 million subscribers on YouTube.
The role would likely be as a part-time contributor, as Smith likes to have a rotating panel of co-hosts rather than a permanent partner.
“I want Shannon Sharpe on ‘First Take’ and I aim to get him…..I’m hopeful. I’m very hopeful and very confident that ultimately we will be announcing sooner than later that he will be on ‘First Take,’” Smith said.
Sharpe and Bayless started to have a rocky relationship, notably after Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field against the Bengals this past season.
Bayless was slammed for a tweet after the collapse but before the game was canceled saying, “No doubt the NFL is considering postponing the rest of this game — but how? This late in the season, a game of this magnitude is crucial to the regular-season outcome … which suddenly seems so irrelevant.”
The following morning, Sharpe stayed home and later expressed he wished for Bayless to delete the tweet.
From that, Smith knew Sharpe wouldn’t be with Bayless much longer.
“That was the day (Damar Hamlin clip) I knew Shannon would be gone from Undisputed on FS1,” he said.
