Shannon Sharpe reveals why he stopped going to women’s houses

Jesse Cinquini
5 Min Read
Jason Parkhurst-USA TODAY Sports

Former star NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe opened up to another former NFL player in Cam Newton about why he stopped visiting women’s houses.

“I had just gotten drafted,” Sharpe said when explaining an incident that stopped him from going to women’s houses. “I came back from Denver — flew in late that night. I didn’t wanna drive home and scare my mom. I’m laying in the bed. I call this young lady. I say, ‘Are you dating anyone?’ She says, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Look, I can drive home.’ Shoulda just went and got that $50 hotel from La Quinta. I’d have been straight, but I said, ‘Nah.’ I said, ‘Do you mind?’ I said, ‘I don’t wanna drive home because me coming home, my grandmother’s gonna be scared because she thinks I’m in Denver. And if I come in, she’s gon’ be scared.’

“I said, ‘You mind if I just stay the night? I’ma go home.’ Cam, something told me, said, ‘Boy, keep your clothes on.’ So, I got on shorts and I got on my t-shirt. Have you ever had sleep paralysis? You can hear things, but you can’t move. It seem like you hear something, and you sometimes you dream it. But I could hear people talking. And I’m like, ‘But I can’t move.’ I could hear it, and it’s getting louder. It’s getting louder, and they’re arguing. So by this time, boom, door fly off the hinges.

“Now, you mind you Cam, yo boy 21. … Boy I’m trouble, so you know I’m jumpin’ up, ‘Ey what’s up? What it’s about to be?’ I said, ‘Oh lord, he got some bodies on his resume,’ and I ain’t talkin’ about the kind of body…yeah I’m talkin’ about them kind of body.’ So I said, ‘My man check this out.’ He said, ‘Sharpe man, congratulation man. … I be tellin’ my homies all the time I know Sharpe, he a good dude. Congratulations on being drafted by the Broncos.’ … He said, ‘Nah Sharpe I ain’t got no problem with you…but I’m just tired of this B lying.’ I’m sayin’ to myself, ‘Me too.'”

Interestingly, Sharpe has never been publicly known to be married, though he does have three kids.

Sharpe spent 14 seasons in the NFL and 12 with the team that drafted him in the seventh round of the 1990 NFL Draft in the Denver Broncos. It took some time for the 56-year-old to solidify himself as a star in the NFL, though, as he didn’t make a Pro Bowl appearance until his third season in the league, when he totaled 640 receiving yards on 53 receptions during the 1992 regular season.

But after his breakout season in 1992, Sharpe put together a stretch where he was consistently in the conversation for being the best tight end in the NFL. He earned seven straight Pro Bowl nods during his time with the Broncos and even finished fifth in the NFL AP Offensive Player of the Year voting back in 1996 after racking up 1,062 receiving yards, 10 receiving touchdowns and 52 first downs receiving in the regular season.

Along with putting up gaudy numbers, Sharpe also won at a high level in the NFL. He won two Super Bowls as a member of the Broncos in 1996 and 1999 and another later on in his career with the Baltimore Ravens in the year 2001.

Sharpe’s swan song in the NFL came during the 2003 campaign, when he appeared in 15 contests with the Broncos in the regular season and accumulated 770 receiving yards and eight receiving touchdowns while averaging a respectable 51.3 receiving yards per contest.

When his pro career was all said and done, Sharpe had amassed over 10,000 receiving yards and more than 60 receiving touchdowns in the NFL. He went on to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame for his contributions on the field.

While it’s arguable whether the incident Sharpe was involved in all those years ago justifies him no longer visiting women’s houses, it’s hard to argue that he isn’t an entertaining storyteller.

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Jesse is an aspiring sports journalist that has previously worked as a staff writer at SB Nation’s CelticsBlog and The Knicks Wall.