Stephen A. Smith breaks silence on co-host Shannon Sharpe's sexual assault allegations: 'Sad situation'

Shannon Sharpe has found himself in a highly-publicized civil battle after he was accused of sexual assault this week.

The football Hall of Famer turned national television star was accused of assault, sexual assault, battery and sexual battery. He was also accused of engaging "in the intentional infliction of emotional distress," with his accuser seeking $50 million in damages.

The situation has already gotten extremely ugly, with Sharpe calling the allegations a "shakedown" while he and his legal team released sexually explicit messages the woman had allegedly sent him over time. The woman is being represented by Tony Buzbee, who represented two dozen of the women who accused Deshaun Watson of sexual assault – all but one of those cases came to a settlement.

Buzbee also represented the woman who accused Jay-Z and Diddy of assault when she was just 13 – the charges were dropped, and Jay-Z is now suing the woman and Buzbee.

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Sharpe is now a guest host on ESPN's "First Take," and the mainstay in Stephen A. Smith broke the silence about the "sad situation" his "friend" is now in.

"We've grown close as friends. I certainly root for him. I know he's been through a lot in life, he's overcome a lot of things, and when he departed from FOX, I was more than happy to bring him on board here. So all I can speak to about is what I know based on the reports, and I can speak about ESPN and Disney," Smith said on his own podcast, adding that ESPN was "aware" he would speak about Sharpe.

Smith said he also spoke with Sharpe, who "emphatically proclaims his innocence." Smith is "hopeful and prayerful that he's completely innocent," but stopped short of saying so himself, and also criticized Sharpe's response to the allegations.

"On one hand, going on the offensive to defend himself, I completely understand where Shannon Sharpe is coming from. On the other hand, when his legal team issued out the press release on X yesterday, they mentioned her name and revealed some of those explicit text messages, that was uncomfortable, and I don't know if that's a strategy that would work," Smith said. "One of the hardest things in the world for all of us to do is to just lay low and be quiet and let our legal team do it. And we don't always know if that's the right thing to do. 

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"I know, and I can tell you all I spoke to Shannon, not in details, but I spoke to him, and he emphatically proclaims his innocence. According to Mr. Buzbee, his client emphatically proclaims his guilt. So where does that leave us? I'd love to tell you I know the answer to that question, but I don't.

Smith added that he does not know what the end result will be in terms of Sharpe's employment at ESPN or on "First Take," but Smith said after speaking with ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro, Pitaro "made it very very clear we are taking this matter very seriously, and we are looking into this very, very closely. And once we gather as many facts as we possibly can, we will go from there."

"In my perfect world, this equates to Jay-Z where the case ultimately dropped, and Shannon is allowed to continue on "First Take" and thrive and shine and have an illustrious career in the podcast stratosphere… In my perfect world, he moves on. And somehow, someway, we find this all to be false. But it doesn't seem like that's the way things are about to go down considering who Mr. Buzbee is and how emphatic his client is proclaiming that she is right and she's telling the truth. I don't know where this is going to go. I can't speak to anything else," Smith continued.

"I hope all of this is a sad ordeal that goes away because there was no truth to it, but I don't know. Neither do you or the rest of us. Only time will tell what the truth is."

Sharpe's attorney, Lanny J. Davis, said the releasing of the explicit messages between the plaintiff and Sharpe "clearly indicate the nature of their relationship was consensual and sexual in nature in many cases, initiated by her with specific and graphic requests." 

The complaint accused Sharpe of "manipulating and controlling Plaintiff" and making threats of violence against her. 

"A woman can say ‘yes’ to consensual sexual relations with a man ninety-nine times, but when she says ‘no’ even once, that ‘no’ means no," the complaint read, via ProFootballTalk’s reporting. "Defendant Shannon Sharpe, a man who is accustomed to getting what he wants, completely fails to understand this basic concept. After many months of manipulating and controlling Plaintiff—a woman more than thirty years younger than he—and repeatedly threatening to brutally choke and violently slap her, Sharpe refused to accept the answer no and raped Plaintiff, despite her sobbing and repeated screams of ‘no.’"

Sharpe said Buzbee, who "targets Black men," is "also going to release a 30-second clip of a sex tape that tries to make me look guilty and play into every stereotype you could possibly imagine." Buzbee confirmed that "an incredible damning video does indeed exist" that "speak[s] volumes about Mr. Sharpe and his behavior."

Sharpe's attorneys admitted that the former tight end previously offered the woman a settlement of around $10 million, but she declined.

Fox News' Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report.

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