Shannon Sharpe was the highly coveted name on the sports entertainment market. Even with all of the big names recently laid off by ESPN, Sharpe was the available star in the industry. His ability to grab people’s attention and provoke a strong opinion is up there with some of the most annoying people in the industry. Sharpe held his own in screaming matches with Skip Bayless for seven years. It’s clear the guy is meant to be on camera.
Sharpe’s exit from Fox Sports was largely speculated to be over a rift with co-host Skip Bayless. It seems that Shannon grew to find him just as annoying as the rest of us, and left as soon as he could. He has been speculated to go to any media company with a sports division, and he now lands with Stephen A. Smith and ESPN.
This is the best place Sharpe could’ve ended up. He needs a loud, uneducated sports fan shouting flawed opinions on him to reach his potential as a sports personality. No one can do this better than Stephen A. He’s given us more clips to turn into memes than Michael Jordan has, and shows no signs of slowing down.
The two of these guys will likely have a better understanding and appreciation for each other’s work than Sharpe had with Skip. They will likely spend a lot of time laughing at each other, on and off the camera. Shannon will also have to deal with the complete 180 of his co-host’s perspective on the Cowboys. The two of them will laugh for sixty consecutive minutes the day after their imminent playoff collapse.
One thing that needs to somehow come out of this is more of Stephen A.’s movie analysis. The Dark Knight is a classic, but so is Stephen A. Smith’s critique of it.
