Stephen A. Smith wishing Shannon Sharpe is innocent as he speaks on ESPN stars civil rape allegations: I certainly root for him

Stephen A.Smith has broken his silence on the rape allegations against his ESPN colleague Shannon Sharpe. On his self-titled podcast released Tuesday, Smith spent nearly 20 minutes discussing the topic, calling it a “sad situation.”“Shannon Sharpe is somebody I work with a couple of days a week.

Shannon Sharpe is somebody I brought to ESPN … We’ve grown close as friends … I certainly root for him,” he said.Sharpe denied the accusations Monday through his lawyer, Lanny J.Davis and doubled down on his denial in a video posted to Instagram on Tuesday.An uncertain Smith, who has worked with Sharpe on “First Take” since September 2023, said he couldn’t “speak to his innocence or guilt from a knowledgeable place.”“Even though I got love and respect for Shannon Sharpe, and I’m sincerely hopeful and prayerful that he is completely innocent of the allegations that have been levied against him,” he added,Smith admitted that he was “a bit torn” on Sharpe’s response, first giving credence to Sharpe’s argument that the accuser’s lawyer, Tony Buzbee, who also represented plaintiffs in the Jay-Z, Sean “Diddy” Combs and Deshaun Watson cases, “targets black men.”But he later questioned how Sharpe has handled the situation since news broke of the lawsuit on Monday morning. “On one hand, going on the offensive to defend himself, I completely understand where Shannon Sharpe is coming from,” Smith said.

“On the other hand, when his legal team issued out the press release on X yesterday and they spoke about (her), they mentioned her name, and they revealed some of those explicit text messages.That was uncomfortable.

And I don’t know if that’s a strategy that will work.”In multiple press releases, Davis named the accuser and unveiled a series of explicit texts allegedly sent by Sharpe’s accuser, which Davis argues are indicative of a consensual relationship that included “role-playing” and “fantasy.”Davis said his ...