Here's the real reason why ESPN didn't fire Shannon Sharpe

so ever since Shannon sharp went viral with this sex tape ESPN has been doing a lot of damage control with excuses and when I say ESPN you know who I'm talking about welcome to Gerald kalil's Conversation Piece I share my thoughts on social content and sports politics and entertainment and if you're new to the channel don't forget to like share and subscribe so a few days ago Shannon sharp went viral when he accidentally posted an IG live of him getting it on with a significant other since making that mistake he has gone on his podcast to apologize and he says that he's embarrassed about the whole situation now his employer ESPN has decided not to fire sharp though we don't know of any reprimands behind the scenes now I'm not advocating in any way that he should be fired but it seems hypocritical when Paul Pierce who once worked for ESPN he got into a similar situation got fired and that's just something I'm not going to get into here but this is where I have a problem there's been all sorts of excuses for the man led by none other than ESPN's mouthpiece Stephen A Smith let's check out the audio of his position and then I'll come back and give you the reasons why Mr Shannon sharp um Shannon sharp that's where I'm going start today because he was trending all over the damn place this week for a pretty interesting reason now uh I was minding my own business when my phone started blowing up and I was getting texts all over the place text messages all over the place everybody calling all you see what's happening you see what's happening I ain't know what the hell was going on about Shannon sharp until I saw what I saw and shall I say a certain video of him doing some things doing some things okay let me just say he may want to change the name of his show uh from Club sh Shay to uh Club Sun El I I I don't know where to go with this here's the deal because obviously um I've spoken to him he is my colleague on first take somebody that I brought over to the show uh last year who's done a phenomenal job uh uh since he's arrived and I'm incredibly appreciative of not just uh the partnership that we've developed but the friendship as well and he he called me about what happened let me know what was transpiring and was letting me know that he was going to let the world know uh what transpired as well Shannon Shaw was having sex it's what he was doing okay he's getting it in it's just that it wasn't for everybody to know and evidently you know he was on Instagram live and didn't know and as a result although no video was seen thank the good Lord we heard quite a bit we heard quite a bit and so initially he thought his stuff was hacked and then obviously came out and and and and and told what transpired and that was that and from that point forward you've had people speculating as to whether or not he was going to get fired was he going to get suspended etc etc again he works on first take I'm the executive producer for first take so if something was gonna happen to him with regards to ESPN I'd be one of the first to know um I was on the phone with the bosses yesterday and and uh you know nothing's gonna happen to be honest with you because nothing should happen let me be the first to say that Shannon committed no crime uh it wasn't some sex tape that he meant for everybody to hear that's not how he rose I've gotten to know him personally that's not how that's not who he is that's not how he rose okay so let me get that out the way first um and if something had happened where he was going to be in a world of trouble I would have fought like hell to make sure nothing came of it because again there's no video and he was living his private life and it was a mistake and if you know anything about Channon uh trust me and believe it was a mistake because not only is he incredibly private he's incredibly clueless when it comes to using social media he has a team that does that for him that's not what Shannon sharp does Shannon sharp will tell you what he wants tweeted he will tell you what he wants posted on IG he will tell you what he wants on Facebook or something like that but the damn sure ain't doing it himself that's not what he does he's not technologically a in that way a lot of people aren't he's one of those people okay I know his team I know him personally I've seen him all the time because when he shows up the first take they are with him when he goes anywhere they are with him there's a Cadre of people that show up with him when he shows up to games and stuff like that they are with him he ain't rolling by himself they come with him he's got a social media person he's got a photographer he's got a photographer he's got all of that he don't mind people filming him and tweeting for him and you know constantly being h a conspicuous presence on social media he likes that stuff he's not like me in that regard we're both very very private but I don't have a desire to have all of that around me he loves it okay he you know but they're professionals that handle his business but they ain't gonna be there when he getting down he ain't gonna have him in the room when he getting down now he going to do that in private okay and I assure you I'm here I'm telling you right now I I wasn't there obviously but based on the Shannon shot that I know I can promise you when that brother says he didn't know he was on IG live he didn't know because there's very little he knows about social media he knows what he says because he's instructed his team to post what he said but in terms of technologically implementing something himself oh no no no no no no no no that's not Shannon that's not Shannon so make no mistake he was telling the whole truth but I want to get to a bigger portion of this story that I wanted to say he says he was embarrassed I saw him on night cap last night with ooo he says he was embarrassed I believe him cuz he don't want people in his business number one number two he don't want people trying to figure out who he was with bothering that person that's true number three Shannon sharp is a big- Time family man and so for me personally I'm just looking at people and I'm like why y'all tripping why everybody acting like you know he he he did something wrong I'm not saying it was right to be to to get caught on on audio getting it be getting it in like that but because it's n of anybody's business but if it was an accident it was an accident I just thought it was important to point this out so long as it was an accident the man did absolutely nothing wrong so people blowing up my phone asking me is he gonna get fired and all of this other stuff no I spoke to the Han ch's he ain't getting fired they it ain't going down like that that's not gonna happen he's going to be here he's gonna be right on first take Monday and Tuesday so you heard the audio excuses Galore if it was anyone else outside of maybe Donald Trump or say Bill Clinton that person would have been fired but because it's Shannon sharp and he brings in x amount of viewers um to ESPN which equates to x amount of dollars the only way sharp was going to get fired is fee raped to kill somebody so let's look at some numbers since sharp joined ESPN now these are the viewing figures of first take uh the ESPN show that sharp co-host courtesy of the US Sun the weekday ESPN debate show averaged 496000 viewers in 20203 making it the most watched year in program history note that sharp joined the network in 2023 its December average of 61,000 was a 24% year- on-year year increase compared to 2022 the show also reported more than 250 million views on YouTube first take was helped by the addition of Shannon sharp alongside Stephen A Smith and Molly quum after he left Fox Sports Undisputed so all of this is about viewers which means more sponsors which means yes she get invested more money that's the reason for the excuses you see Shannon's impact on the network heck you saw what happened to e uh FS1 Undisputed when he left it went down the tubes skip bis ended up getting fired over its demise now going back to the Paul Pierce situation the executives at ESPN probably discussed at their meeting that went something like this so how our Revenue since we've added Paul Pierce uh has he increased our viewership sponsors no well given the circumstances I think we should just cut bait on the other hand with sharp hey guys give him a break it was a mistake plus it's not like he killed anyone plus he brings in a lot of viewers and you know what that means more sponsors more Revenue so respectfully to Stephen A let's try and be honest here it's all about the money please leave your comments below don't forget to like share and subscribe I'll see you in the next one now