Pro Football Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe is facing a $50 million lawsuit filed earlier this week, accusing him of sexual assault, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Sharpe’s attorney, Lanny J. Davis, has denied all allegations, calling the lawsuit a “blatant and cynical attempt to shake down Mr. Sharpe for millions” and an act of blackmail.
Davis fully defended his client during a Tuesday conference call with reporters. But he – perhaps inadvertently – made news that does not reflect well on Sharpe.
He revealed that before he joined Sharpe’s legal team, the three-time Super Bowl champion attempted to settle the matter with the accuser.
According to ProFootballTalk, Davis repeatedly stated that Sharpe offered “tens of millions of dollars” to settle the case.
The lawyer, after saying “tens of millions” several times, eventually, upon multiple requests for clarification, settled on the amount of “at least $10 million.”
Shannon Sharpe Tried to Settle With Accuser
Thus far, Shannon Sharpe has aggressively denied the allegations leveled in the lawsuit, which makes his reported willingness to settle for such a large sum rather confounding.
If one is so sure of their innocence, why settle? And more importantly, why such a considerable amount? One could understand a smaller amount to make the case disappear, but at minimum, you’re offering 20% of the massive $50 million amount sought in the lawsuit?
The plaintiff, who was only identified as “Jane Doe” in the suit, was identified and outed by Sharpe after he released extremely graphic text messages he purports to be from her.
The woman alleges she met Sharpe in 2023 at a Los Angeles gym when she was 19. According to the lawsuit, the two then entered a “rocky consensual relationship” that lasted nearly two years.
The court filing claims the 56-year-old Sharpe sexually assaulted her twice, in October 2024 and January 2025, ignoring her pleas to stop, and engaged in controlling and threatening behavior.
The threatening behavior allegedly included threats to kill her. The woman further claims that Sharpe recorded their sexual encounters without consent and shared the footage with others.
RELATED: Shannon Sharpe Faces Explosive $50M Lawsuit for Alleged Sexual Assault
Disturbing All Around
Shannon Sharpe’s legal team is arguing that his relationship with the much younger woman was consensual and that any video of them engaging in sexual activity will have been distorted to create an alternative narrative.
“It is filled with lies, distortions, and misrepresentations, and it will not succeed. In her effort to extract a large financial settlement, [plaintiff] presented Mr. Sharpe with a secretly recorded video of a consensual sexual encounter,” Davis said.
And yet, he reportedly offered a large financial settlement.
As Sportsnaut has reported, a leaked phone call between Shannon Sharpe and the woman makes the allegations even more disturbing, revealing a very violent side to the ESPN personality.
In the call, Sharpe angrily states, “If you say that word one more time, I’m going to [expletive] choke the [expletive] out of you when I see you.”
The whole situation is incredibly ugly. It’s important to remember that Sharpe should be afforded the presumption of innocence until the case moves forward and the facts are revealed.
