Report: Broncos legend Shannon Sharpe leaving FS1

The end of Shannon Sharpe’s NFL career led to the immediate start of his broadcasting work. But after over seven years working for Fox Sports’ cable channel FS1, he will step away from the microphone for the immediate future.

According to a report from the New York Post, Sharpe and FS1 reached agreement on a contract buyout. Sharpe is expected to leave after the conclusion of the NBA Finals. That will bring an end to his work on the network’s show “Undisputed,” which he co-hosts with the combustible Skip Bayless.

Sharpe and Bayless appeared to be at loggerheads on multiple occasions in recent months. Tensions between the two reached a boiling point in early January, when Bayless tweeted about what the NFL should do regarding a Week 17 game between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals in the wake of Damar Hamlin collapsing on the field.

The NFL ultimately chose to abandon the game.

No doubt the NFL is considering postponing the rest of this game – but how? This late in the season, a game of this magnitude is crucial to the regular-season outcome … which suddenly seems so irrelevant.

— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) January 3, 2023

Sharpe chose not to appear on “Undisputed” the following day. When he returned to the show on Jan. 4 — some 36 hours after Hamlin was rushed to a Cincinnati hospital to begin his recovery — Sharpe opened the show with a monologue in which he implored Bayless to take down the tweet.

“Time out, I’m not going to take it down,” Bayless interrupted. “I stand by what I tweeted.”

Replied Sharpe, “I cannot even get through a monologue without you interrupting me.”

Sharpe first entered broadcasting in 2004, joining CBS’ “The NFL Today” immediately upon retirement from the Broncos.

He spent 12 of his 14 seasons as a player in Denver. He became a core player on the Broncos’ first two world-championship teams that won Super Bowls XXXII and XXXIII. Sharpe won a third Super Bowl ring during a two-season stint (2000-01) with Baltimore.

Then, in 2002, he returned to Denver. In his first season back, he set an NFL single-game record for receiving yardage by a tight end. A year later, he broke Jerry Smith’s career record for touchdown catches by a tight end.

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