Stephen A. Smith breaks silence on co-host Shannon Sharpe's sexual assault allegations: 'Sad situation'

Shannon Sharpe has unveiled himself in a highly-publicized civil battle after he was accused of sexual assault this week The football Hall of Famer turned national television star was accused of assault sexual assault battery and sexual battery He was also accused of engaging in the intentional infliction of emotional distress with his accuser seeking million in damages The situation has already gotten extremely ugly with Sharpe calling the accusations a shakedown while he and his legal club circulated sexually explicit messages the woman had allegedly sent him over time The woman is being represented by Tony Buzbee who represented two dozen of the women who accused Deshaun Watson of sexual assault all but one of those cases came to a settlement Buzbee also represented the woman who accused Jay-Z and Diddy of assault when she was just the charges were dropped and Jay-Z is now suing the woman and Buzbee CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS COMSharpe is now a guest host on ESPN's First Take and the mainstay in Stephen A Smith broke the silence about the sad situation his friend is now in We've grown close as friends I certainly root for him I know he's been through a lot in life he's overcome a lot of things and when he departed from FOX I was more than happy to bring him on board here So all I can speak to about is what I know based on the reports and I can speak about ESPN and Disney Smith commented on his own podcast adding that ESPN was aware he would speak about Sharpe Smith commented he also spoke with Sharpe who emphatically proclaims his innocence Smith is hopeful and prayerful that he's absolutely innocent but stopped short of saying so himself and also criticized Sharpe's response to the charges On one hand going on the offensive to defend himself I wholly understand where Shannon Sharpe is coming from On the other hand when his legal gang issued out the press release on X the previous evening they mentioned her name and revealed certain of those explicit text messages that was uncomfortable and I don't know if that's a strategy that would work Smith announced One of the hardest things in the world for all of us to do is to just lay low and be quiet and let our legal crew do it And we don't constantly know if that's the right thing to do ASHTON JEANTY DISCUSSES HIS MILITARY FAMILY BACKGROUND LIKENS IT TO NFL DRAFT PROCESS I know and I can tell you all I spoke to Shannon not in details but I spoke to him and he emphatically proclaims his innocence According to Mr Buzbee his client emphatically proclaims his guilt So where does that leave us I'd love to tell you I know the answer to that question but I don't Smith added that he does not know what the end aftermath will be in terms of Sharpe's employment at ESPN or on First Take but Smith revealed after speaking with ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro Pitaro made it very very clear we are taking this matter very seriously and we are looking into this very very closely And once we gather as a multitude of facts as we possibly can we will go from there In my perfect world this equates to Jay-Z where the development ultimately dropped and Shannon is allowed to continue on First Take and thrive and shine and have an illustrious career in the podcast stratosphere In my perfect world he moves on And somehow someway we find this all to be false But it doesn't seem like that's the way things are about to go down considering who Mr Buzbee is and how emphatic his client is proclaiming that she is right and she's telling the truth I don't know where this is going to go I can't speak to anything else Smith continued I hope all of this is a sad ordeal that goes away because there was no truth to it but I don't know Neither do you or the rest of us Only time will tell what the truth is Sharpe's attorney Lanny J Davis announced the releasing of the explicit messages between the plaintiff and Sharpe clearly indicate the nature of their relationship was consensual and sexual in nature in several cases initiated by her with specific and graphic requests The complaint accused Sharpe of manipulating and controlling Plaintiff and making threats of violence against her 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 the complaint read via ProFootballTalk s reporting Defendant Shannon Sharpe a man who is accustomed to getting what he wants altogether fails to understand this basic concept After countless 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 Sharpe commented Buzbee who targets Black men is also going to release a -second clip of a sex tape that tries to make me look guilty and play into every stereotype you could possibly imagine Buzbee endorsed that an incredible damning video does indeed exist that speak s volumes about Mr Sharpe and his behavior Sharpe's attorneys admitted that the former tight end previously offered the woman a settlement of around million but she declined Fox News' Paulina Dedaj contributed to this document Follow Fox News Digital s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter