‘I’ve lost relationships’: Shannon Sharpe almost breaks down in tears recalling her ‘undisputed’ past with Skip Bayless

The Denver Nuggets accomplished the 2023 NBA Finals on June 12. The next day, former NFL star-turned-sports-television star Shannon Sharpe co-hosted his latest episode of Fox Sports’ “Undisputed.”

Stephen A. Smith, who currently works with Sharp two days per week on ESPN’s “First Take,” touched on the circumstances surrounding his departure from FS1 in the past, suggesting that his departure was lower than amicable.

“I didn’t look at it that way. That’s how I would look at it if Shannon left of her own accord. I’m telling you he was pushed out.” Smith said on “The Joe Budden Podcast” in September 2023.

As the one-year anniversary of his departure from “Undisputed” approaches, Sharpe sat down with the “Black Money Tree” podcast to reflect on his past.

According to Sharpe, a yr ago he didn’t think he could be where he’s today.

“You see, people say, ‘Well, Shannon, why are you so emotional?’ Because in the event you knew how much I put into this work, you’d understand. Sharpe told Texas Black Expo 2024 host Jerome D. Love in a clip posted on May 27: “You see, the greater the expectations, the greater the pain when something doesn’t work out. And I put so much into it.”

Sharpe, choking up a bit, said his commitment to work got here on the expense of his personal life.

“I abandoned everything. I lost relationships because I couldn’t go out to dinner. I couldn’t go on holiday. I couldn’t do it because I had to watch all the sporting events. I had to be able to talk about them on TV and talk about them professionally, so it cost me a lot.”

“Even though I felt hurt, I knew the old saying, ‘The sun follows the rain,’ so deep down I always say, ‘God, I know you didn’t bring me this far just to take me this far.’”

The crowd cheered as they heard Sharpe’s testimony as he began to speak in regards to the powerful advice given to him by his sister, whom he also considers his best friend.

Sharpe once more brought the conversation back to the sacrifices he made for Undisputed and all of the work he put in. Just eager about his sacrifices almost brought him to tears again.

“To say it didn’t hurt to leave because it did… because of what I put into it, and that’s why it hurts,” an emotional Sharpe said. “That’s why parents get upset when your child doesn’t live up to what you expect of them. It hurt you more. It hurt me to fail because I had put so much into this job. And now when I look at it, I realize that I have no talent anymore. You can’t kick me out of Shay Shay media because I own it. You can’t fire me from Nightcap. You can’t kick me out of Club Shay Shay, I own it. And that’s how I look at my business now. You will be my partner. You won’t write me a check to do something anymore. We are partners.”

Although he didn’t state it explicitly, it suggests that that is the primary time Sharpe has hinted that he was, in fact, fired from Undisputed. When the previous FS1 co-host initially parted ways with the show, he didn’t address the situation, without immediately explaining what led to his departure.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, that is officially my last day at work. “After seven years, the train stops here with Shannon Sharpe and ‘Undisputed,'” Sharpe said in his latest episode.

In a September 2023 episode of “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” Sharpe recounted an on-air incident from December 2022 in which he believed Skip Bayless was disrespectful to him.

“There were moments leading up to it where I felt like photos had been taken and I let it go,” Sharpe told Smith. I must have said something then, but I didn’t. And I brought it to people’s attention they usually swept it under the rug. So it was my fault that it got up to now and he felt like he is perhaps overreacting in this case. I believe in any relationship where there’s a number or co-host… when one partner has no respect for the opposite, the opposite partner in turn loses respect for that partner. Then I believe it’s only a matter of time. Because at that moment I felt like he had lost all respect for me. He had no respect for me.”

He then said that he knew his time was coming, so he fulfilled his contract.

At that moment I knew it was only a matter of time. They can have to separate it. I knew that. I knew that. I desired to honor the contract, but I knew it could end because he began coming to the pitch with increasingly more regularity, which caused a scarcity of respect,” Sharpe said.

Sharpe appears to have confirmed for the primary time ever that he has been fired. But being fired is something he doesn’t need to worry about anymore. Now that he owns his own platform, Sharpe is doing higher than ever. He recently bragged that he made extra money in one interview with Kat Williams on “Club Shay” than he made in a complete yr in the NFL.

“I just got my check. So whatever you think that I did, three X’s are. So in the event you think I made 500,000, three X’s are. If you think that I made 1,000,000, 3 times that. If you think that I made two million, that is three Xs,” he said.

Sharpe and former NFL wide receiver Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson also co-host “Nightcap.”