Shannon Sharpe ‘LEAVING Undisputed and his last show is in June’ after the NBA Finals are over – months after tension with co-host Skip Bayless over Damar Hamlin
Shannon Sharpe is leaving his Undisputed show on Fox Sports 1 after five years.
The New York Post has claimed that Sharpe has made a deal with Fox on a buyout on his terms and that his last show will be in June after the NBA Finals.
It comes months after Sharpe and co-host Skip Bayless publicly disagreed on how the NFL should handle Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest in January.
The Post also reported Wednesday night that Sharpe wanted parity with Bayless in terms of influence over the topics discussed on the show.
Bayless tweeted in early January on the night of Hamlin’s collapse that the NFL could not postpone the Buffalo Bills game with the Bengals due to scheduling, despite genuine fears that Hamlin would survive after going into cardiac arrest on the field.
Shannon Sharpe is reportedly leaving Undisputed, with his departure scheduled for June
Sharpe has clashed with co-host Skip Bayless in recent months, most notably over Damar Hamlin
Sharpe has reportedly reached an agreement with Fox on a buyout of his terms to leave
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 critical to the outcome of the regular season… which suddenly seems so irrelevant,” Bayless wrote.
Sharpe stayed away from the next day’s episode of Undisputed and when he returned a day later, he was visibly frustrated with Bayless interrupting him as he explained his position.
Bayless apologized for the tweet but did not delete it.
“Skip tweeted something, and while I disagreed with the tweet, and hopefully Skip will delete it,” said Sharpe, explaining his absence around the Hamlin incident, before Bayless intervened.
“Time out,” Bayless said Wednesday. “I’m not going to delete it because I stand by what I tweeted.”
Sharpe replied, “I can’t even get through a monologue without you interrupting me.”
“I was just about to say, Skip, I didn’t want to get into a situation yesterday where Damar Hamlin was the problem. We should be talking about him, not responding to your tweet.
That’s what I was going to do. But you can’t even let me finish my opening monologue without interrupting.”
Sharpe has spoken highly of Bayless in the past, but seems to want to go in a new direction
The following month, Sharpe shared how he mended his relationship with Bayless.
“We see things differently, that’s why we’re working on the show,” Sharpe said in February. “I don’t want disagreements to go out of line and I think they do. I think everyone thought it.
“More people know me from Undisputed than from the NFL – most people don’t realize I actually played and was a pretty good player!”
The premise of Undisputed is that 54-year-old Sharpe, a three-time Super Bowl champion, and Bayless debate the top sports talking points of the day — whether they agree or not.
They also clashed on a personal level in December when Bayless compared Sharpe who retired at 35 to Tom Brady who played to 45.
Playing as a tight end, Sharpe won two Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos and another with the Baltimore Ravens.
‘I did what I did!’ Sharp responded. “You make it look like I was a bum! I’m in the Effin’ Hall of Fame. I’ve got three Super Bowls!”
Bayless didn’t back down, he said, ‘So what? He’s much better than you were.’
It only angered Sharpe more and as he tried to speak, Bayless interrupted him, leading to the former tight end shouting “Time out!” yelled. and threw his glasses on the table.
Sharpe then said, “Are you willing to shoot me personally, to say he’s better than me, because I say he’s playing badly this year?”
Sharpe’s podcast, Club Shay Shay, is also believed to follow him from Fox.