Shannon Sharpe is out at ESPN.

The network has parted ways with Sharpe mere weeks after the TV personality settled a lawsuit alleging rape, Front Office Sports can confirm. The Athletic first reported the news.

In April, an anonymous woman filed a lawsuit against Sharpe seeking $50 million in damages. Sharpe, who denies the allegations, said at the time that he was stepping away from ESPN but planned to return at the start of the NFL season. 

On July 18, the accuser’s attorney, Tony Buzbee, announced his client had reached a settlement with the Pro Football Hall of Famer, seemingly clearing a pathway for his return to ESPN’s football coverage and First Take with Stephen A. Smith, where Sharpe had become a regular contributor.

Earlier in April, FOS reported Sharpe, 57, had settled a separate accusation with a female production assistant who said he strangled her in the workplace while the two worked at FS1. Sharpe had been anticipating signing a deal worth more than $100 million for Shay Shay Media, FOS reported shortly before the news of the lawsuit.

Sharpe has continued to podcast on Club Shay Shay and Nightcap, two shows on his network.

ESPN had no comment when asked about Sharpe.

Sharpe said Wednesday on Nightcap that he had heard the news from ESPN earlier in the week, and that he hoped it would not break until after his brother, Sterling Sharpe, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday. (The Sharpes are the first pair of brothers to make the Hall.)

“I really enjoyed my time at ESPN,” Shannon Sharpe said Wednesday. “I just wish this thing could’ve waited until Monday. I hate the fact that I’m overshadowing my brother.”

The NBA’s two-apron salary structure has been criticized since it was instituted in the 2023 CBA. Breaching either apron comes with penalties that restrict a front office’s roster management options, so contending teams have repeatedly made moves to get below the thresholds.

There have been references to the second apron, in particular, as a pseudo–hard cap, which is a threshold that franchises are not allowed to exceed. However, former National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) executive director Tamika Tremaglio defended the two-apron structure in an interview with Front Office Sports.

“What I’ve been hearing is [there’s] a hard cap. There is no hard cap,” said Tremaglio, who was the union’s executive director when the latest CBA was ratified in April 2023. “The reality is that any team can go into the apron. Any team could go into where they’re now paying taxes. It just becomes a more intentional choice on that team as to whether or not they will pay the taxes.”

There are three levels on top of the NBA’s soft salary cap, which was set at $154.65 million for the 2025–26 season:

• Luxury tax: $187.9 million
• First apron: $195.95 million
• Second apron: $207.82 million

Teams that exceed the luxury tax are subject to financial penalties. The fees are why the Celtics, before their offseason moves, were projected to pay $500 million next season, with more than half coming from tax violations.

The first-apron penalties include limitations in salary matching during trades and the inability to sign-and-trade for a player—unless the move brings them below the apron.

The second-apron penalties are much more severe, including restricting teams from aggregating two or more salaries in any trade. Despite references to it as a hard cap, the Cavaliers and Suns are projected to be above the second apron this upcoming season. However, historically high-spending teams like the Warriors and Clippers have worked to elude it in recent years, and the Timberwolves traded Karl-Anthony Towns a year ago with the specter of penalties looming.

Tremaglio, who left the NBPA in late 2023 and works at consulting firm Secretariat as the managing director leading its global sports consulting practice, acknowledged the system could cause “challenges” for teams in their roster-management process. 

However, she added that the tax and apron system was put into place to limit the stark spending gaps among the 30 NBA teams. The result of such a system was to create greater parity across the league—which has been accomplished, given the revolving door of NBA champions over the last seven years.

“The goal, in essence, is that every team, regardless of market size, has a roughly equal chance to compete, and to run a rational business,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in October when speaking about the CBA rules. “It seems to be working so far.”

The Browns’ relationship status with Cuyahoga County, Ohio, is certainly complicated, adding to the drama surrounding the NFL team.

Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam said they are fully moving ahead with their planned $2.4 billion domed stadium and mixed-use development in suburban Brook Park, Ohio, despite a series of funding and legal obstacles. How the county will be involved in the effort, if at all, remains quite uncertain.

On one hand, the Haslams said they are prepared to move forward without any financial involvement from the county, despite prior aims of garnering $300 million toward the project from that jurisdiction. Along similar lines, county executive Chris Ronayne said he has no intention of contributing to a project he has frequently called “a boondoggle.”

On the other hand, though, the team still wants to build a relationship with county leaders. 

“Now is the time to work together,” Jimmy Haslam said. “Maybe it doesn’t work out with the county, but now’s the time to sit down and see if we can’t work together. This is an important project. I don’t think many other entities are spending $2 billion–plus in this community.”

So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance

As the county situation plays out, the Browns’ stadium project is also battling complications on multiple other fronts. There is an active lawsuit related to the team’s plan to draw $600 million from an account of unclaimed state funds. Separately, the city of Cleveland is challenging various components of the team’s current lease for the downtown Huntington Bank Field, even after a separate challenge related to Ohio’s Modell Law was mooted. 

The state money is half of what the team had targeted to gain from public sources, with the Haslams originally set to contribute $1.2 billion. There are hopes of gaining $300 million in municipal-level support from Brook Park, leaving a final $300 million unaccounted for. 

Amid all of that, Jimmy Haslam said there is “a 99.9% chance” of the Brook Park stadium happening, but he also acknowledged the inherent difficulties. A formal groundbreaking is targeted for early next year in advance of a projected stadium opening in 2029.

“This is a complicated project,” he said. “There’s stuff going on. It’s three and a half years until the stadium opens, and we will have to work hard every day to get everything to come together.

“We’re going to have the groundbreaking regardless,” Jimmy Haslam said. “Let me say this and try to be very respectful of everybody. … We can do the project without the county. I think it’s best if the county and [Haslam Sports Group] work together, O.K.? And I won’t say anything more than that.”

The Browns’ stadium situation is developing as similar ones are unfolding for current and potential NFL facilities in markets such as Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.

Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson reported to training camp Wednesday still without a new contract after incurring more than $450,000 in fines during his holdout.

“Things are exactly the same,” Hendrickson told reporters when asked about contract negotiations.

Hendrickson, 30, is seeking a raise on the $16 million he is due to make in the final season of his current deal. As one of the better pass rushers in the league—Hendrickson led the NFL in sacks with 17.5 during the 2024 regular season—his salary is less than half of what the top of the market is for edge defenders. 

Earlier this month, Steelers defensive end T.J. Watt signed a three-year, $123 million contract that carries a new money average annual value of $41 million, making him the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL, for now. Cowboys defensive end Micah Parsons, who is not holding out of training camp, is also seeking a new deal that could surpass Watt’s.

Hendrickson has sought a new contract since the beginning of the offseason. However, the Bengals prioritized signing receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to new deals first. In March, the wideouts became the richest receiving duo in the NFL with four-year extensions worth $161 million and $115 million, respectively. 

By reporting to training camp, even if he doesn’t practice, Hendrickson will no longer be fined $50,000 per day, as he was during the first seven days of camp. That $350,000 sum, on top of $104,768 in fines for missing minicamp, takes Hendrickson’s fine total this summer to $454,768. He’s made $68.24 million during his first eight seasons in the league, four with the Saints and four in Cincinnati.

Hendrickson’s decision to report without a new deal follows a similar decision from Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin, who showed up to Washington’s camp Sunday after losing out on more than $800,000 from holding out. McLaurin, 29, is seeking a raise on the $19.65 million he is set to make this season.