ESPN sportscaster Stephen A. Smith has opened up on Shannon Sharpe's switch to the network.
NFL Hall of Famer Sharpe joined Smith on First Take after leaving FS1 show Undisputed last summer.
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Stephen A. and Sharpe are currently in Las Vegas ahead of Super Bowl LVIII.
The pair appeared in special editions of First Take from Sin City on Thursday and Friday.
Sharpe was the former sparring partner of Skip Bayless on Undisputed but left the show after almost 7 years in June 2023.
Stephen A. sat down with former NFL quarterback Cam Newton to record an episode of his 4th and 1 podcast.
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He referenced a heated argument about Tom Brady between Bayless and Sharpe on air in the fall of 2022.
"If you remember, him and Skip got into it about the whole Brady thing," Smith told Newton.
"Shannon sort of lost it and he was cool from that point forward.
"Then you fast-forward, and the whole thing with Damar Hamlin came down."
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Sharpe and Bayless's beef appeared to come to a head in January 2023, when they clashed over a tweet Skip had put out following the on-field collapse of NFL star Damar Hamlin.
"[Shannon] was off the air that day. Then he came back on the air that day, and he was trying to say something and Skip wouldn’t let him finish his monologue," continued Stephen A.
"And when I saw that, I called him. ‘It’s over. He’s like, ‘What?’ I said, ‘You won’t be back.'
Shannon Sharpe opens up over Undisputed axe and how he's 'bigger' since leaving and joining ESPN's First Take"I’m not betraying anybody’s trust or nothing.
"I know [Bayless]. I know him, so I’m like, there is no way on earth that that happened, and you’ll be back. It will not happen. You understand?
"And I want you to know, when it happens, not if, I said, ‘I got you.'"
Sharpe left Undisputed last summer in a tearful final episode.
He has since become a firm fan favorite on First Take and has a nightly podcast Night Cap with Unc and Ocho.
Replying directly to the footage of Stephen A. speaking to Newton, Sharpe wrote on his X page, "True story."
Richard Sherman, Keysahwn Johnson, and Michael Irving were added to the Undisputed roster alongside Bayless in a summer shake-up.
Sharpe recently opened up on the move and claimed he has got "bigger" since making the switch to ESPN.
First Take announced record ratings in January.
He claimed he was "let go" by Fox and took several shots at Bayless's show ratings since he left, expressing that he has grown from every experience.
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"Undisputed, let me go, now look at it. Look at the [subscribers]. I got more subs than Undisputed," Shannon said.
"Look at the talent they got over there, and we got a new podcast - and we got more subs than anybody they got over there, combined."
