ESPN Says Shannon Sharpe Will Cohost ‘First Take’ Monday After Instagram Incident

Shannon Sharpe said Wednesday that he’s an “active, healthy male.” He is still actively employed by ESPN as well.

The network said Thursday that Sharpe will cohost First Take as usual Monday, less than a week after the NFL Hall of Famer went viral for sharing an apparent sexual encounter on Instagram.

On Wednesday, Sharpe’s Instagram went live with audio of the 56-year-old and a woman having what Sharpe later confirmed was a sexual encounter. An employee of Sharpe’s later posted from his account that the NFL legend had been “hacked,” but Sharpe admitted Wednesday night that the audio was genuine. 

“I threw my phone on the bed, engaged in an activity,” Sharpe said Wednesday night on his YouTube show “Nightcap,” which he cohosts with Chad Ochocinco. “I did not know IG Live. I’ve never turned IG Live on so I don’t know how it works and all of sudden my other phone is going off.”

While Sharpe claimed it was an accident, going live on Instagram requires users to open the app and press several buttons to begin a live broadcast.

Sharpe said his “heart sank” when his longtime “marketing guy” told him that viewers could hear what sounded like a sex act.

Sharpe, who began appearing regularly on First Take in 2023, said he immediately alerted ESPN that the audio was genuine. (ESPN said that his absence from the show on Thursday was in line with his normal schedule, which has him appearing on-air on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.) In June, Sharpe agreed to a long-term contract extension with ESPN, tying the podcaster and network together as First Take continues to dominate morning sports talk. Sharpe also hosts the ultra-successful interview podcast Club Shay Shay.

“I called my agents, I called ESPN, I just got to tell them the truth,” Sharpe said Wednesday night. “My phone wasn’t hacked, it wasn’t a prank, it was me being a healthy, active male,” he said.

Sharpe and Ochocinco also referred to ongoing speculation about Sharpe’s sexuality, and Sharpe repeatedly denied that the incident was “staged” to make a point.

He then extensively discussed the incident with Ochocinco, the former NFL receiver turned media personality. After a somber opening monologue about how he was “embarrassed” about having “one of your most intimate details” broadcast worldwide, the pair launched into a raucous discussion. 

Johnson mocked Sharpe for his ineptitude with technology, saying his cohost would regularly “butt-dial” him. Sharpe joked that his underwear was headed to the Hall of Fame.

The episode already has been viewed over one million times, and its primary sponsor was an erectile dysfunction drug, which Sharpe seamlessly opened the show with an ad read for. (Later in the show, he joked that “I’m looking for a mattress sponsor now.”)

Inappropriate live broadcasts on Instagram have landed ESPN talent in hot water before. In 2021, former NBA player Paul Pierce was fired for posting a video of himself in a room with scantily clad dancers and cigars. (Pierce revisited the incident earlier this year, saying “I didn’t do nothing illegal, and that’s the story. I got fired for literally having a good time.”)

ESPN considers the matter with Sharpe closed. A spokesperson for the network said that Sharpe’s comments about the incident on “Nightcap” have addressed the issue.