Shannon Sharpe Sends Warning Shot To Fellow ESPN Employee Kirk Herbstreit After His Criticism Of 'First Take'
The entire premise of ESPN's ‘First Take’ is centered around drama. Either Stephen A. Smith and his plethora of co-hosts are talking about some sort of drama in the sports world or creating their own by coming up with takes, typically spicy ones, designed to get the sports world talking.
Since the show's inception nearly two decades ago, we've seen plenty of drama unfold on the set between Stephen A., guests, and co-hosts, but typically it stays within the ‘First Take’ universe that has morphed into more of a WWE production over the years.
Well, Shannon Sharpe is stepping out of that universe and taking aim at fellow ESPN'er Kirk Herbstreit.
In Sharpe's defense, Herbstreit threw the first punch, and did so on the ESPN airwaves during Ohio State's win over Tennessee in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
During the final minutes of the Buckeyes' blowout victory, Chris Fowler, who was on the call with Herbstreit, criticized his fellow ESPN pundits for claiming Ryan Day's coaching seat was scorching hot.
"When you hear pundits on this network and other places talk about that with certainty, it's nonsense, frankly," Fowler said of Day's job status.
While Fowler may have technically started the war of words, Herbstreit elected to specifically call out ‘First Take’ during his response.
"'First Take' tried to fire him," Herbstreit said, referring to Day. "They thought he was done, so I'm excited to see what they'll talk about on Monday."
Monday rolled around, and to no surprise, the ‘First Take’ crew leaned into the drama with Sharpe volunteering as the pot stirrer.
"I’m gonna be a good teammate. I’m gonna let it slide. Everybody’s at ESPN. Because had you not taken the route you’ve taken, I would’ve lit their asses up," Sharpe said during Monday's show.
"If we’re going to be on the same team, if we’re gonna work for the same network, don’t do that. Kirk, Chris Fowler, I promise you, if you ever mention any platform that I’m on again talking about ‘I wonder what they’re going to say as negativity,’ I promise you, ESPN ain’t got enough bosses to keep me off y’all for what I’m going to say…don’t play with me."
If you only read Sharpe's comments you would think they were tongue-in-cheek, but in watching the clip you'll see that he's being as serious as can be, or at least portraying himself as such.
Now, what comes next?
It would be legitimately stunning to see Herbstreit take this bait from Sharpe and the ‘First Take’ crew, but they will likely milk it for all it's worth. The most likely outcome is for this to die out on its own, but the lid may be taken off again if the Buckeyes put up a dud of a performance against Oregon in the second round of the Playoffs and Day finds his name caught up in rumors again.