Stephen A Smith became the latest sports commentator and celebrity to give his two cents on the Shannon Sharpe Instagram Live scandal. "Shannon Sharpe was having sex," he remarked on his show. "That's what he was doing, okay? He was getting it in. It's just that it wasn't for everybody to know. And evidently, you know, he was on Instagram Live and didn't know. As a result, although no video was seen – thank the Good Lord – we heard quite a bit. We heard quite a bit. Initially, he thought his stuff was hacked and then, obviously, he came out and told what transpired. And that was that.
"From that point forward, you've had people speculating as to whether or not was he gon' get fired, was he going to get suspended, et cetera, et cetera," Stephen A Smith continued. "Again, he works on First Take. I'm the executive producer for First Take. So if something was gon' happen to him with regards to ESPN, I'd be one of the first to know. Let me be the first to say that Shannon Sharpe committed no crime. It wasn't some sex tape that he meant for everybody to hear. That's not how he rose. I [got] to know him personally. That's not who he is, that's not how he rose, okay? So let me get that out of the way first.
Stephen A Smith Speaks On Shannon Sharpe
"And if something had happened where he was going to be in a world of trouble, I would've fought like hell to make sure nothing came of it," Stephen A. Smith went on. "Because, again, there's no video and he was living his private life and it was a mistake. And if you know anything about Shannon, trust me and believe it was a mistake. Because not only is he incredibly private, he's incredibly clueless when it comes to using social media. He has a team that does that for him.
"I want to get to a bigger portion of this story that I wanted to say," Stephen A. Smith concluded. "The nerve of people out there that were trying to act like he did something wrong. Two consenting adults were getting it in yesterday morning. What's the problem? What's the problem? I couldn't believe why people were trying to act like, 'Yo, he did something wrong.' They're trying to say, 'Sex tape, sex tape.' Nah, no, you didn't see it. If you didn't see it, you didn't see it."