Brace yourself; the take battles are starting up again. As FS1’s Undisputed plans its retooling with Richard Sherman joining Skip Bayless, the New York Post reported a bombshell on Thursday evening. The publication reported that former Undisputed co-host and Pro Football Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe is going to the Worldwide Leader, ESPN, to debate Stephen A. Smith on First Take.
Andrew Marchand of the New York Post wrote, “Shannon Sharpe will square off against Stephen A. Smith on Mondays and Tuesdays on the ESPN debate program during football season, The Post has learned.”
Reading between the lines, the plans in place are to seemingly keep Sharpe around in the aftermath of NFL games, including ESPN’s Monday Night Football telecast. Instead of having him around throughout the week, when non-NFL banter could emerge, ESPN appears just to be “specializing” Sharpe or at least rotating him around as First Take goes through changes.
It’s not an unprecedented move, nor is it a poor decision on their part. Whatever you make of them, there’s an audience for these personalities. People will almost certainly want to tune in so they can watch Sharpe and Smith, two of sports media’s most vocal and characterized personalities, debate on topics, which will likely be the NFL primarily.
One only has to wonder if Smith and Sharpe will come together to bag on the Dallas Cowboys, as is tradition, after all.
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022