Hours after Shannon Sharpe announced that he would be temporarily leaving ESPN amid ongoing rape and sexual assault allegations, his lawyer insists that the NFL Hall-of-Famer will countersue and not settle the lawsuit brought against him.
Sharpe’s attorney, Lanny Davis, appearing on former CNN anchor Don Lemon’s “Lemon Live at 5” show on Thursday evening, emphatically dismissed any suggestion that the current ESPN star will settle the ongoing case.
“Is there a settlement here?” Lemon proposed. “Because every legal person I’ve seen online or in a story is like, ‘This will settle.'”
“This will NOT settle,” Davis replied. “We are going to sue her for defamation and many other causes of action that involve, and potentially, a criminal act, is blackmail. And that is what happened here. And we have the evidence of blackmail, and we will prove it in court. This will not settle. She is going to be proven to be a liar. My client’s reputation, his family, he’s been embarrassed, and he is going to be vindicated by a jury that will find her guilty of lying, and she will have to pay heavily for these false attacks on my client.”
Earlier this week, reports emerged that Sharpe had offered the woman, referred to as “Jane Doe” in the original lawsuit, $10 million to settle the matter privately before any lawsuit was filed. According to Davis, a similar arrangement is now no longer on the table.
Throughout the lengthy interview, Davis painted a picture of a sexually promiscuous 19-year-old girl who insisted on engaging in rough sex, including choking, with Sharpe. Davis frequently brought up the accuser’s presence on OnlyFans, where she would post content that he alleges is consistent with the “fantasy role-playing” she sought.
Towards the end of the interview, Lemon asked about the large age gap between Sharpe and his accuser, which Davis chalked up to “a certain mental lapse, imperfection in the human species,” which “applies to the male gender more than the female gender.”
Davis also insisted, consistent with Sharpe’s statement earlier on Thursday, that he would return to ESPN for the NFL’s preseason.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.