As soon as the news of the imminent departure of Shannan Sharpe from FS1’s Undisputed broke, people began putting Sharpe together with Stephen A. Smith. (Yes, we were people too.)
Friday afternoon Smith addressed the topic on his Youtube show, titled The Stephen A. Smith Show.
“I don’t know what @ShannonSharpe’s plans are right now…but I know that if he wants to make his way on over to First Take…I am here for it,” Smith said on the show.”
Of course, Smith isn’t the only ESPN personality that has his eye on Sharpe as a co-host. Pat McAfee said he would welcome having Shannon Sharpe as he switches over to that platform as well.
“But Shannon being available… that’s a narrative shifter for a place,” McAfee said during Thursday’s installment of “The Pat McAfee Show.”
“That’s a potential massive asset to a platform that maybe wants to launch… Shannon is going to be in a really good spot here I think and I hope to hell he comes to ESPN.
“And when I say come to ESPN, we’re not even at ESPN, but we’re going to be there and if Shannon Sharpe is to be there, and you start talking about like what a day could look like, that’s f–king awesome… and I am very excited about it.”
Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe have both become fixtures in the daily sports scene in recent years, with Skip Bayless sitting across them as a common denominator. Smith sat across from Bayless for years on First Take before Bayless slid over to FS1 and began to rap it out with Shannon Sharpe. Both men are also HBCU graduates, with Stephen A. Smith having graduated from Winston-Salem State while Shannon Sharpe played at Savannah State before going on to a Pro Football Hall of Fame career.