Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless’ lucrative, fruitful, but tumultuous partnership will officially come to an end soon.
The Hall of Fame tight end and Fox, parent company that owns Fox Sports 1, agreed to a buyout, according to the New York Post.
His final show is expected to be aired after the NBA Finals conclude this month.
Skip & Shannon Were Legendary Sports Debaters
Since joining Bayless in 2016, the two have made countless memories on air, including their huge fallout in December.
Sharpe and Bayless got into a heated discussion over Tom Brady. Sharpe accused Bayless of taking a personal shot at him to defend Brady. Bayless told Sharpe that he was “no where near the player Brady was.”
In the midst of this big announcement, Sharpe is still going through a ugly legal with Brett Favre. The legendary Packers quarterback dropped a defamation lawsuit against Sharpe and popular sports show host Pat McAfee.
Rocky Few Months
The friction between Bayless and Sharpe first started in December over a disagreement about Brady. Also in December, Sharpe missed a Tuesday show because of Bayless’ tweets about Damar Hamlin. Bayless’ tweets insinuated that the Bengals-Bills game on Jan. 2 should continue because of the playoff implications it had after Hamlin collapsed on the field and suffered cardiac arrest. Bayless received backlash over the tweets but did provide a half-hearted apology and explanation.
In February, Sharpe appeared on SiriusXM’s “The Adam Schein” podcast to explain why he wasn’t going to walk away from the show like a lot of social media users and Black entertainers suggested.
“We had a bad two months,” Sharpe said when describing his current relationship with his co-host as of now. “I wasn’t gonna allow two bad months to ruin six years of a great working relationship.”
Favre Being Petty
Favre was listed in a lawsuit by Mississippi Department of Human Service in which the state says he was one of dozens of individuals who benefited from the misappropriation of $77 million Temporary Assistance to Needy Families funds. The state says he improperly caused $5 million in TANF funds to be used to build a new volleyball facility at his alma mater the University of Southern Mississippi and another $1.1 million for speaking engagements he never spoke at. The $1.1 million was paid back and he was never criminally charged.
McAfee apologized for his comments on his sports show and Favre dropped the lawsuit in early May.
Sharpe didn’t and chose to take the case to a federal level while fighting the defamation allegations. On Tuesday, a judge granted Sharpe’s lawyers extra time to file the final written submission to have their client’s case dismissed.
The attorneys for Favre filed a 32-page memorandum of law in opposition to Sharpe’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, according to Sportico.com.
Brett Favre And Shannon Sharpe In Full Snitch Mode
Favre is arguing that Sharpe’s statements were defamatory and suggest that he committed larceny, which is defined as theft of personal property.
“So, if that is the poorest state, Brett Favre is taking from the underserved. You made a hundred-plus million dollars in the NFL, and to talk about, well, [Favre] didn’t know. This is what Brett Favre texted, ‘If you were to pay me, is there any way the media can find out where it came from and how much?'” said Sharpe on “Undisputed” when new first broke about the allegations against Favre.
Sharpe added, “The problem that I have with this situation, you’ve got to be a sorry mofo to steal from the lowest of the low.”
Dilemma For Favre
Sharpe and his lawyers have until June 7 to file their final written motion to have the lawsuit dismissed.
The biggest obstacle in Favre’s lawsuit is he is a public figure. Since he is viewed as a public figure, he would have to provide evidence that any defamatory statements were made with malice.
According to Sportico, Favre also would have to prove that Sharpe made false and hurtful statements with knowledge that the statements were false or with reckless disregard.
Another hurdle for Favre would be that he would have to prove that Sharpe’s untrue statements were presented as factual or objective remarks. Sharpe is on a popular heavily opinionated sports show and his remarks could arguably viewed as a combination of hyperbole, opinion, and exaggeration. All are which are not grounds for defamation and Sharpe based his statements on Mississippi’s government accusations as well as the text messages from Favre that were leaked.
Favre has been consistent with his stance of he didn’t know about the scheme and Sharpe doesn’t have the “license to defame.”
To sum things up, Favre really doesn’t have a good case against Sharpe, and he is not going to get the apology from the Hall of Fame tight end that he received from McAfee.
As for Sharpe’s television career, it is still to be determined where he would take his talents to next but he still has his “Club Shay Shay” podcast that is continuously growing in popularity.
