On July 31, 2025, American sports columnist and podcaster Jason Whitlock uploaded a video on his official YouTube channel and talked about Shannon Sharpe being fired by ESPN, a day after the latter revealed that he was let go from the sports media company."I have to consider this and I think anyone, this is the biggest fumble in football history. I mean, what, what Shannon Sharpe has done here, he was on the brink of auctioning himself off for a 100 million dollars. And now he's out at ESPN," Whitlock said in the YouTube video.Whitlock added that Sharpe was at a great place in his career when he allegedly got involved with a young OnlyFans model. He continued by stating that Sharpe had allegedly lost sponsors for his show Nightcap. Whitlock claimed that Sharpe was about to reach the apex when he was "taken down" by the young model."His reputation's in the toilet. Advertisers are running away from him. ESPN by firing him has just, uh, further destroyed his reputation and made it harder for advertisers to support," Jason Whitock stated.Whitlock claimed that Shannon apparently had to pay more than $20 million to the model to keep her away from his life. He repeatedly referred to this as the "greatest fumble in football history." In the video, he then mentioned that he had a list of the top ten football fumbles, according to him. He read the list out, with Shannon Sharpe's situation seemingly topping it.At one point in the video, Jason Whitlock claimed that Shannon was about to make around 100 million dollars. However, according to the podcaster, he reportedly ended up paying millions of dollars to the model, which could be enough for her to even opt for retirement in her 20s. As of now, the YouTube video has amassed more than 30K views and has been liked over 1K times.For the unversed, the model had sued Sharpe on sexual abuse allegations in April 2025.ESPN had not issued any official statement addressing the decision to fire Shannon SharpeAccording to People magazine, Shannon Sharpe settled a $50 million rape and sexual assault suit with the model, referred to as “Jane Doe,” in July. However, a few weeks after that, he had to officially cut ties with ESPN.Despite speculations and media houses reaching out to the company, ESPN did not share any official statement revealing the exact reason behind letting Sharpe go. Sharpe joined ESPN back in 2023 and appeared on the talk show First Take along with Stephen A. Smith as well as Molly Qerim.Sharpe then appeared as an NFL and NBA analyst. As per People magazine, he was let go from the sports-broadcasting network about a year after signing a multi-year contract extension in June of last year. While ESPN had not officially spoken about the decision, Sharpe chimed in briefly during the July 31 episode of his podcast Nightcap. He said:"They did what they needed to do, and I'm at peace with that."While he was officially removed on July 31, Sharpe had stepped away from ESPN back in April when the suit was filed. In April, Sharpe stated that he was backing off from ESPN "temporarily." According to The New York Post, Shannon Sharpe wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post:"At this juncture I am electing to step aside temporarily from my ESPN duties. I will be devoting this time to my family, and responding and dealing with these false and disruptive allegations set against me."In the post, he further mentioned that he was looking forward to return to ESPN and get back at what he had been doing. However, that currently would not seem possible with the decision that ESPN took about letting him go. After Shannon stated that he was going to "temporarily" step back, ESPN too agreed to that. The sports media company released a statement on April 25:"This is a serious situation, and we agree with Shannon's decision to step away."What were the allegations against Shannon Sharpe in the lawsuit?The legal tension surrounding Shannon Sharpe began on April 2025, when a woman, using a pseudonym 'Jane Doe,' filed a sexual assault suit against him. The former professional football tight end was accused of raping the woman during multiple instances for about two years. According to the complaint obtained by People magazine, the two allegedly had a "rocky consensual relationship."According to the BBC, in July, it was reported that the parties had reached to a settlement and the case was dismissed. Shannon Sharpe had denied the allegations made against him, since the beginning.While the previous lawsuit got dismissed and just shortly after being fired from ESPN, a woman named Jimalita Tillman had filed a new suit against him, per Larry Brown Sports. Tillman accused Sharpe for spreading false information about her moments with Usher at a concert.Shannon Sharpe is yet to officially comment on this new lawsuit.