Shannon Sharpe Speaks Out After He’s Fired from ESPN and Explains Why He Had to Apologize to His Brother

Shannon Sharpe says he’s “at peace” with his firing from ESPN — but wishes the timing were different.

Hours after news broke that the network and the NFL Hall of Famer were parting ways, Sharpe shared his perspective on his Nightcap podcast.

“Really the only thing I asked was like, ‘Guys, could we wait until Monday? My brother’s going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame,’ ” Sharpe, 57, told his co-host, fellow retired NFL star Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson. “I really want it to be about him and I want it to be about my family. This coming out would overshadow everything that he’s worked his entire life for. And unfortunately, you know, it didn’t happen that way.”

Sharpe said he apologized to his older brother Sterling, 60, about the timing of it all.

“He said, ‘Bro, stop apologizing. You don’t have to apologize. I’m your big bro, I’m gonna love you regardless. We all make mistakes,’ ” Sharpe recalled.

Sterling is set to be inducted into the Hall of Fame this weekend in Canton, Ohio, making the brothers the first-ever siblings to be inducted. Shannon was inducted in 2011.

Shannon’s firing came less than two weeks after he settled a $50 million rape and sexual assault lawsuit that was filed against him earlier this year. 

Sharpe, who first joined ESPN as an analyst in August 2023 following his departure from FS1’s Undisputed, has not been on the network since the lawsuit against him was filed in April.

PEOPLE reached out to ESPN for comment.

Last September, explicit audio of a sex act was posted to Sharpe’s Instagram Live.

Sharpe initially claimed that his account had been hacked before coming clean about the incident.

“Obviously I am embarrassed,” Sharpe said at the time. “[I’m] someone that is extremely, extremely private and to have one of your most intimate details, the audio heard for the entire world to hear, I’m embarrassed for a number of reasons.”

Now, as the Sharpe family prepares to celebrate Sterling’s induction, Shannon is reflecting on his time at ESPN, which he said he “really enjoyed.”

“They did what they needed to do and I’m at peace with that,” he said.