Shannon Sharpe is Being Sued $50M for Sexual Assault by 'Jane Doe', Represented by Tony Buzbee, The Attorney Who Repped Plaintiffs Against Deshaun Watson, Diddy, and Jay-Z
Pro Football Talk - Sharpe was sued on Sunday by a woman proceeding under the “Jane Doe” pseudonym. The 13-page civil complaint, filed in a Nevada state court, alleges that Sharpe committed assault, sexual assault, battery, and sexual battery, and that he engaged in the intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The plaintiff claims that they embarked on a “rocky consensual relationship” that lasted nearly two years.
The complaint alleges that Sharpe recorded their sexual activities, something without her knowledge, and that he was sharing the videos with others without her permission or knowledge. The complaint contends that it was another woman, not the plaintiff, with whom Sharpe was having sex when he “accidentally” livestreamed the encounter on Instagram.
Not even a week ago, the only thing Shannon Sharpe was the news for was for allegedly being on the precipice of signing a $100M podcast deal.
Now he's on the hook for half that in a civil suit. Crazy how life works out sometimes. It's been almost 2 years since Shannon Sharpe reached his Skip Bayless tipping point and left FS1 to go out on his own. He's been crushing it ever since. He has nearly 4M subscribers on his "Club Shay Shay" YouTube channel. He routinely drops videos that surpass 1M views. His Katt Williams interview alone current stands at 89M. He's been nothing but a success going out on his own. I'd be lying if I said I was a frequent listener, but I see clips of him and Ochocino going back and forth all the time, and the two seem to have great chemistry. He's still making frequent appearances on First Take. In fact, as the news of his $50M civil rape suit was going viral this morning, Shannon Sharpe was smack dab in the middle of Stephen A. Smith shouting match.
Now is the part of article where I bravely state that I will not be speculating into the validity of this civil suit. We obviously have no fucking idea what happened. I'm sure we all have our own opinions. It's just another run-of-the-mill, $50 million dollar he-said, she-said situation.
Pro Football Talk - The complaint contends that it was another woman, not the plaintiff, with whom Sharpe was having sex when he “accidentally” livestreamed the encounter on Instagram.
That was, per the complaint, the moment at which the plaintiff “began to pull away from Sharpe.” The complaint claims that he relentlessly pursued her after she stopped answering her phone or sharing her whereabouts.
The complaint contends that Sharpe confronted the plaintiff in October 2024, after she had commenced efforts to separate from him. The complaint details the ensuing encounter, which culminated in allegedly forcible sex against her consent.
Another alleged incident happened in January 2025. The complaint alleges that Sharpe engaged in unprotected sex with the plaintiff, despite her efforts to get him either to stop or to wear a condom.
From the first page of the complaint: A woman can say “yes” to consensual sexual relations with a man ninety-nine times, but when she says ‘no’ even once, that ‘no’ means no. Defendant Shannon Sharpe, a man who is accustomed to getting what he wants, completely fails to understand this basic concept. After many months of manipulating and controlling Plaintiff—a woman more than thirty years younger than he—and repeatedly threatening to brutally choke and violently slap her, Sharpe refused to accept the answer no and raped Plaintiff, despite her sobbing and repeated screams of ‘no.’”
But it is worth noting that the lawyer representing Jane Doe in this case is Tony Buzbee. If you've heard that name before, it's because anytime there's a famous athlete or celebrity being sued for sexual assault, or being sued for anything high-profile, Tony Buzbee is usually the prosecuting attorney making a shit load of money off of it.
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He represented the 20+ women who exposed Deshaun Watson for wreaking havoc on massage parlors across Texas. He represented more than 50 plaintiffs in cases against P Diddy. He filed a $750M suit against Travis Scott on behalf of the victims who died at his Astroworld concert, and settled for an undisclosed amount out of court. Buzbee also filed the lawsuit against Jay-Z accusing him of raping a 13-year old girl (which he's now being countersued by Jay-Z for)
So the man isn't shy about taking a big money case against a big name athlete-celebrity like Shannon Sharpe. I can't say what exactly Tony Buzbee representing this Jane Doe says about this case, but there sure is a sentiment among many that Tony Buzbee is real money-grabbing piece of shit who will take any case, regardless of its validity. From what I can tell, Shannon Sharpe sure seems to plowing forward with his life as if nothing is happening. In the midst of all this news dropping, his Nightcap show with Ochocinco posted a video of Shannon Sharpe bragging about how he has NEVER had to "touch himself".
Sick timing, guys. I can't say that video did anything to make me think less of the rumors. Kinda feels like Shannon Sharpe is high-stepping in this civil suit's face a bit. I mean he retweeted that post from his personal account just an hour after his $50M rape suit went viral. A video of him bragging about how he's never had to masturbate, because he's such a pussy getting motherfucker. God damn, Shannon. You could have just posted about the Lakers.
In my news watching experience, I feel like 1 of 2 things happens from here. It's either settled out of court for an undisclosed agreement, regardless of whether or not it's true. Jane Doe walks away with a chunk of Shannon Sharpe's $100M podcast deal and we never hear about this again. Either that, or more victims come out the woodwork, and by this time next week Tony Buzbee will be representing a whole fleet of women with multi-million dollar accusations levied against Shannon Sharpe. Guess we just have to wait and see.