Shannon Sharpe draws parallels between his sexual assault allegation lawsuit and Shedeur Sanders' mindset

Shannon Sharpe is facing a very serious accusation of having an abusive relationship with a certain Gabrielle Zuniga, who was decades his junior at the time it happened - one that allegedly involved rape. And as he fights to clear his name, he has invoked comparisons to a recent draftee who found himself ostracized by the world.

Speaking on his Nightcap podcast with Chad 'Ochocinco' Johnson on Sunday, the Hall of Fame tight end made an analogy between his situation and comments about disproving critics that Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders made during rookie minicamp over the weekend:

"All I want is for people to love me. I just need the people that I love to love me... A lot of people have a lot to say, but as my brother been calling me a lot, I've met a lot of people, and thank you all everybody that reached out and the thoughts and prayers. I sincerely appreciate that."

He continued:

“Everybody gonna have an opinion. Everybody think they know you...when they really don’t. They heard this, they heard that. Have you ever talked to Shannon?”

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Shannon Sharpe reacts to Saints' QB conundrum after Derek Carr's retirement

Back on Saturday, Derek Carr shook up a supposedly idyllic day by announcing his retirement from the NFL after 14 seasons. As a result, the New Orleans Saints now have the league's weakest quarterback rotation - Jake Haener, Spencer Rattler, and Tyler Shough.

And in that same episode, Shannon Sharpe implied that the team's fanbase should lower their expectations (segment begins at 52:23 in the video below):

“What happens is you get spoiled. You had Drew Brees for 15 years and then you expect every quarterback to, look, you’re not going to beat Green Bay. You’re not going to have Brett Favre for 15-20 years, have Aaron Rodgers for 15-20 years, then have Jordan Love.”

Meanwhile, Chad Johnson cast doubts about the viability of the draft as an assessor of quarterbacks' potential:

“You take those same numbers that you just talked about, and I’m not going to say his name, but you know who I’m talking about, and you look at what he had to deal with because his offensive line play wasn’t that good, but for some reason, he was highly accurate still. That’s funny how that works, but that’s neither here nor there.”

Saints OTAs begin on May 20 and will last until June 5.