Stephen A Smith talking about Shannon Sharpe (Photo via YouTube)
Stephen A. Smith is not going to end up like Shannon Sharpe.

The ESPN analyst is addressing questions asking why he’s never been caught up in any career-ending scandals while speaking on his fellow ESPN analyst Sharpe’s s3xual assault lawsuit controversy.

As we have previously shared, 56-year-old Shannon Sharpe was accused of s3xual assault in a $50 million lawsuit by a woman he used to date.

The 22-year-old woman, who filed as “Jane Doe,” has been identified as OnlyFans model Gabriella “Gabbi” Zuniga.

Zuniga accuses Shannon Sharpe of being “manipulating and controlling” and even “repeatedly threatening to brutally choke and violently slap” the woman.

After the news broke, Sharpe’s lawyer condemned the lawsuit, claiming his client and accuser had a “consensual” relationship that ended in January 2025.

Stephen A. Smith initially spoke about his ‘First Take‘ co-host Shannon Sharpe’s s3xual assault lawsuit on his self-titled YouTube show, but now he is diving more into why no controversies have happened to him.

On a recent episode of his self-titled YouTube show, ‘’The Stephen A. Smith Show,’ Smith said:

“One of the things that we need to remind ourselves of is that in this day and age, very few things are private. In this day and age, there’s very few things that won’t come to light — ‘cause most things do.

But, thinking beyond Shannon and myself, just thinking about the world that we live in — in terms of the podcast stratosphere and everything like that — a lot of people want to walk around thinking you can do what you wanna do when you wanna do it. You could own your own operation, and you don’t have to answer to anybody. That’s not true.”

Smith continued to reveal the questions he gets asked about not facing scandals.

“I’ve had people open their mouths, and they’ve said, ‘Stephen A., you work for ESPN. What kind of control do you really have?’ This is my podcast. This is my YouTube show. I own this. But, if you think for one second that I can just do what I want to do when I want to do it and how I want to do it and there’s not going to be any repercussions, you’re clueless, and you’re destined to fail and fall on your face. I’m not talking about Shannon Sharpe. I’m not talking about anybody in particular. I’m talking about a climate that we’re living in. Some people sit up there, look at me, and they say, ‘Stephen A. don’t get himself in this kind of trouble. How does he pull it off?’ Well, first of all. There’s certain behaviors and proclivities that you never have to worry about me engaging in.”

Shannon Sharpe Steps Back From ESPN

Shannon Sharpe (Photo By Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images)

Shannon Sharpe won’t be on ESPN for months.

Sharpe said he will step away from ESPN after a civil lawsuit filed last week in Nevada accused the football Hall of Famer of s3xually assaulting and battering a woman during their relationship.

Sharpe shared a statement to X on Thursday saying he was “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,” the statement reads. “I plan to return to ESPN at the start of the NFL preseason.”