Stephen A. Smith Says ESPN Brass Is Talking To Shannon Sharpe About Joining ‘First Take’: “I Want Him On”
21.07.2023 - 23:06
/ deadline.com
ESPN may have laid off a couple dozen people in the past month, but it seems the network is not afraid of hiring, either.
“I want Shannon Sharpe on First Take and I am to get him,” said that show’s star, Stephen A. Smith on his podcast today, before revealing that ESPN brass are in negotiations with the hall-of-fame tight end who just recently left Fox.
“We are definitely talking to Shannon Sharpe,” Smith said. “The conversations are official, the reports have not been misnomers or misreports or anything like that. We are talking to him and I’m hopeful, very hopeful, very confident that ultimately we will be announcing sooner than later that he will be on First Take.”
Smith added that the decision was not ultimately his to make, but that he wanted to make clear publicly where he stood.
The man @ShannonSharpe can pull up with a bottle of Hennessy for all I care. I want him on First Take pic.twitter.com/FdL78bnGps
There have, indeed, been recent reports that Sharpe was in talks to join the network for what may or may not be a full-time position. Either way, it would give the ESPN morning show a prominent NFL voice in its regular rotation.
The network’s newest star acquisition, Pat McAfee, has also publicly urged Sharpe to join ESPN.
Sharpe joining the show as a regular would be a stick in the eye of his most recent sparring partner, Skip Bayless. Not only did Sharpe just leave Undisputed and Bayless at Fox, but he would be joining the show and the host that Bayless left in 2016 to move to Fox.
In response to a tweet from Smith teasing today’s show, Sharpe was a little more coy than his potential ESPN partner.
“Whatcha addressing on Fri?” wrote Sharpe on Twitter. “I’ve got some free time so feel free 2 FT me b4 my